Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Meet The First Black Captain Of A Vessel In The Service Of The United States …

Robert Smalls (Friday, April 5th, 1839 – Tuesday, February 23rd, 1915) was a Black American slave who, during and after the American Civil War, became a ship’s pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself, his crew and their families from slavery on Tuesday, May 13th, 1862, by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, the CSS Planter (a “wood-burner” launched in 1860), in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor, and sailing it to freedom beyond the Union Army’s blockade. As one of the first Black Americans to serve in the United States Congress, all of whom were Republicans during the Reconstruction Era, Smalls authored legislation that created the first free and compulsory public school system in America in South Carolina, founded the Republican Party of South Carolina,1 and with Frederick Douglass successfully convinced President Abraham Lincoln to accept Black Americans as soldiers in the Union army.2 Most notably, Smalls was the first and last Republican to represent South Carolina until Republican Tim Scott became the first Black United States Congressman and now United States Senator to represent South Carolina since Reconstruction after the Civil War. 3

Slave, Husband, Father and Freeman

“After waiting apparently in vain, for many years for our deliverance, a party consisting of nine (9) men, myself included, of the City of Charleston, conferred freedom on ourselves, five (5) women and three (3) children; and to the Government of the United States we gave the Planter, a gunboat which cost nearly thirty thousand dollars ($30,000), together with six (6) large guns, from a twenty-four (24) pounder howitzer to a hundred (100) pound Parrott rifle. We are all now in the service of the navy, under the command of our true friend, Rear Admiral Dupont, where we wish to serve till the Rebellion and Slavery are alike crushed out forever.” 4 — Robert Smalls, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, August 27th, 1862.

Born into slavery in the “Dependency House” (i.e., a cabin behind the house of his master Admiral Henry McKee on 511 Prince Street in Beaufort, South Carolina) Robert Smalls received a sense of pride, self worth, dignity from his mother, Lydia Polite (who was also a slave held by McKee) and a set of skills from his owner.5 Instead of sending Robert out to the slave fields, when Robert was twelve (12) years old McKee sent him to his sister-in-law in Charleston where he would be hired out to work in the city.6 Hiring a slave’s time out to other persons in the city was simply another form of slavery that allowed the owner of the slave to profit from the slave’s labor. Here Robert would learn new skills and eventually find work on the docks. By 1854 Robert was fifteen (15) years old and earning fifteen dollars ($15.00) a month which belonged to Mckee who in turn would allow Robert to keep one dollar ($1.00).7 With his one dollar ($1.00) Robert would purchase things like tobacco and candy and then sell it on the docks.8 As a young man Robert had learned to start a business and save his money. By 1856 Robert would meet a hotel maid named Hannah Jones and marry her.9 By 1858 Hannah and Robert had their first child, Elizabeth Lydia.10Understanding that Hannah was being physically abused by her master and could be sold, Smalls attempted to buy his family’s freedom with the money he saved. However, Hannah’s freedom would cost him eight hundred dollars ($800.00) and because he only had one hundred ($100.00) to his name, escaping to the North was Smalls’ only option to save his family and the clock was running.11 By 1860 the tensions between the North and the South over the future of labor (paid-labor versus slave-labor) were so heated that the secession of states was more than a possibility, it was imminent and South Carolina was at the heart of it all.12 By 1861 Southern slave states declared their secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the American Civil War was on.13 By 1862 Robert Smalls was a twenty–three (23) year old illiterate slave in the employ of Confederate Commander Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley who commanded the CSS Planter.14 The Planter was a three hundred (300) ton side wheel steamship, built for commercial purposes, but during the Civil War served the Confederate Army as a heavily armed transport and dispatch vessel.15 Early on the morning of Tuesday, May 13th, 1862, the Confederate commander at Charleston, South Carolina, Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley, was astounded to learn his dispatch boat, stationed at a wharf directly in front of his headquarters, had disappeared.16 Dressed as the Planter Captain C. J. Relyea,17 familiar with the waters and where the mines were, because as a slave he had laid them himself,18 Robert Smalls used the correct signals for safe passage through the five (5) Confederate gun batteries including Fort Sumter and boldly sailed and surrendered the CSS Planter to Union forces currently blockading the ports.19 In so doing Smalls freed himself, his wife, two children, and twelve other slaves by approximately 4:30 A.M. that morning.20

Be Free Or We Perish Together!“One of the most heroic acts of the war” 21

“As soon as the officers [on the Planter] were gone, Smalls and his fellows consulted and all agreed: the time had come. Word was sent to the sailor on the other boat and to the women and children: Proceed. Quietly, on the Planter, Smalls broke into the cabin to secure the captain’s straw hat and jacket and any small arms he could find. It was firmly understood among the conspirators that if they met with any interference they would resist and, if it came to that, rather than suffer capture, they would sink the Planter and all aboard. If scuttling failed, they ‘would all take hands … and jump overboard and perish together.'” 22

The First Black American Civil War Hero

“My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.” 23 — Robert Smalls

As a result of the fame that came from Robert Smalls’ daring theft of the CSS Planter, he was awarded an audience with President Abraham Lincoln where he sat at the conference table next to Frederick Douglass in an effort to convince President Abraham Lincoln to enlist Black men to fight for the Union forces in the Civil War. Smalls and Douglass helped recruit nearly 5,000 Black American men for the Union army.24 Smalls boldly backed his beliefs by fighting the Confederate Army as a pilot on the now USS Planter (the ship that he had commandeered to freedom) in the fall of 1862. As a solider, Smalls led the Union Navy efforts to deactivate mines that he had helped plant while enslaved by the Confederacy and then guided the Union forces to Confederate outposts and assisted in the destruction of railroad bridges in the harbor area.25 By 1863 Smalls piloted the USS Keokuk (i.e., one of the Casemate Ironclad gunships) in the Union attack on Fort Sumter. The attack failed miserably.26 Understanding former slaves were traitors to the Confederacy and would be executed without question, Smalls took command of the ship from the surrendering Captain James Nickerson (who was hiding in a coal bunker below deck), navigated it out of harm’s way and rescued the crew just minutes before the USS Keokuk sank.27 Nickerson was dismissed as a coward and Smalls became the first Black Navy Captain in the service of the United States.28 By 1865 Smalls would return to Fort Sumter with the USS Planter to witness the Union’s “Stars and Stripes” raised marking the defeat of the Confederate Army and the end of the Civil War. As the first hero of the Civil War declared by the United States Congress, Robert Smalls would later be appointed to the rank of Major General in the South Carolina Militia during the Reconstruction period.29

Serving in the United States Congress

Representing South Carolina’s 5th and 7th Districts

“The party of Lincoln which unshackled the necks of four million human beings.” In his campaign speeches he said, “Every colored man who has a vote to cast, would cast that vote for the regular Republican Party and thus bury the Democratic Party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble coming from the spot where the burial took place.” Later in life he recalled, “I can never loose [sic] sight of the fact that had it not been for the Republican Party, I would have never been an office-holder of any kind from 1862 to present.” 30 — Robert Smalls

Robert Smalls founded the Republican Party of South Carolina, served in the South Carolina House and Senate from 1865 to 1874, was a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1868 and served in Congress off and on from 1875 to 1887.31 The gap in Smalls congressional service took place after the Compromise of 1877 when Republican President Rutherford Birchard Hayes withdrew Union troops from the south 32 and was due to false accusations that he took a $5,000.00 bribe in connection with the award of a printing contract in January of 1873 while serving as a state senator.33 Due to the “the uncorroborated testimony of an admitted felon” who was testifying to save his own hide, 34 Smalls was arrested at home on Saturday, October 6th, 1877, 35 found guilty and sentenced to three (3) years of hard labor.36 In the absence of Union troops, racists Southern White Democrats called the “Redeemers” (i.e., members of the Klu Klux Klan who wanted to return the state to its pre-war status of white supremacy) used violence and election fraud to regain control in the state legislature.37 Ultimately Smalls fought back and was pardoned by South Carolina Governor William Simpson.38 As part of the agreement that pardoned Smalls, charges were also dropped against the Democrats who had been accused of election fraud.39 Having regained his congressional seat, Smalls continued to fight to protect the civil rights of Black Americans, promote their representation and participation in state politics and move forward legislation for a public school system in South Carolina.40

South Carolina Constitutional ConventionBy 1895, Benjamin Ryan “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, Jr. and the “Redeeming” Democrats (i.e., Ku Klux Klan and Red Shirt White Supremacist) in South Carolina had succeeded through violence, terror, and election fraud to reduce the number of Black Americans registered to vote in the state from 81,000 in 1868 to less than 10,000 in 1894.41 Tillman called for a constitutional convention in 1895 to rewrite South Carolina’s constitution of 1868 and to take away the right to vote of Black Americans in South Carolina.42 After leaving the convention to attend to the illness and eventual death of his second wife, Annie Wigg Smalls, Robert returned to the convention and refused to sign the new constitution that changed South Carolina’s suffrage requirements and disenfranchised Black Americans.43 Without the aid of Union troops on guard in the South, the Redeemers gained the upper hand through fear and violence and by 1890 “Pitchfork Ben” became the 84th Governor of South Carolina.44 By 1912, and even though a Republican President William Howard Taft was in office, South Carolina’s two Democratic Senators, Benjamin Tillman and Ellison D. Smith, successfully blocked Smalls’ reappointment as South Carolina’s Collector of Customs for the Port of Beaufort.45 By 1915 Robert Smalls would die of diabetes.46 By 1940 a statue of Governor Tillman was unveiled on the state capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina. 47

Robert Smalls Was Concerned About The U.S. Navy

” [ Robert ] Smalls told Samuel Francis Du Pont, commander of the U.S. Navy’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, that he worried more about the U.S. Navy shooting at Planter than the Confederates.” 48

Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont Was A True Friend

“One of the coolest and most gallant naval acts of war.” 49 — Samuel Francis duPont

“The bringing out of this steamer would have done credit to anyone … This man Robert Smalls is superior to any who has yet come into lines, intelligent as many of them have been. His information has been most interesting, and portions of it of the utmost importance.” 50 — Samuel Francis duPont

Samuel Francis Du Pont was a direct descendent of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. His uncle was Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company, which today is the multinational DuPont chemical corporation.51 During the American Civil War, DuPont was one of the chief suppliers of black powder to the United States military.52 According to the Hagley Museum & Library exhibition entitled: “An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: The du Ponts and the Civil War,” Flag Officer Samuel Francis Du Pont at Port Royal praised Smalls for his heroism and promised to take care of him, his family and his crew.53 Being a man of his word and in need of Robert’s extensive knowledge of the waters around Charleston and the Confederate military signals and approaches,54Du Pont not only took care of the nine (9) crew members, five (5) women and three (3) children on the Planter by helping them get settled in Union occupied territory near Port Royal, South Carolina, he then made Robert the pilot of his flagship, USS Wabash.55 As the relationship between Smalls and DuPont grew, DuPont lobbied for Robert and his crew. On Friday May 30th, 1862, the United States Congress passed an act for the relief of Robert Smalls and the Planter crew. This legislation directed the Navy Department to appraise the steamer and its cargo and pay them one half of the value. Du Pont was charged with obtaining the appraisal and dividing out the money. The Planter and her cargo was valued at $9,168.00, leaving $4,584.00 for Smalls and his crew. As architect of the Planter’s rebellion and ranking member of the slave crew, Robert received $1,500.00 and the rest was split among the crew and their families.56 In the month of June 1862, Rear Admiral DuPont appointed Smalls as his personal representative to oversee a program designed to help former slaves successfully work on the land abandoned by slave plantation owners called the “Port Royal Experiment“.57 Because Smalls spoke both Gullah and “regular” English and he understood the views of both Blacks and Whites, he was needed to meet with and facilitate the efforts of private Northern charity organizations stepping in to help the former slaves become self-sufficient.58 Smalls was so successful, that on Wednesday, August 20th, 1862, at the request of Major General David Hunter, Smalls met with United States Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. A few days later Smalls, Hunter and Stanton met with President Abraham Lincoln.59 Thank you Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, the “Port Royal Experiment” was indeed a rehearsal for reconstruction and Robert Smalls was the right man for the job. By Monday, August 25th, 1862 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton authorized the enlistment of Black troops into the Federal Army.60 By declaration on Wednesday, May 10th, 1865 the American Civil War ended 61 and then Democratic President Andrew Johnson ended the “Port Royal Experiment” by returning the land to its previous White owners.62

Open Letter To The Pro-Life Movement

2013 Marks The 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

“I will go, and where you die, I will die.” — Hannah Smalls63

“How can I expect to keep my freedom if I’m not willing to pay for it?” — Robert Smalls64

We’re in the fortieth (40) year of legalized abortion in the United States of America. At this point, we’ve lost over fifty-six (56) million lives to surgical abortion on demand alone and counting.65 The enormous impact of fifty-six (56) million lives lost to abortion on demand, is equivalent to the population of our eighty-two (82) largest cities,66 from New York all the way down to cities the size of Chandler, Arizona. To put it another way, fifty-six (56) million abortions are equal to twenty-two (22) times the human lives lost from ALL the wars America has ever fought (from the American Revolutionary War in 1775 to the Iraq and Afghanistan War today).67 Further still, the toll includes some eighteen (18) million Black American babies 68 and thirty-seven (37) million others. Honestly, that’s about 3,796 times as many Black Americans as were lynched since the American Civil War.69 All this adds up to a 30% loss in the younger generation under age forty-five (45). These numbers amount to a holocaust against Blacks and against the young. Without question, this is the greatest loss ever inflicted on any generation in the history of our country. Could it be, that now is the time to take a page from Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont and seriously invest in communities of color to end abortion on demand? Could it be, that with Black and Hispanic Americans representing the number one (1) and number two (2) customers of the Abortion Industrial Complex 70,71 now is the time to lead with color? Could it be, that because communities of color speak the language and understand the views of both the franchised and disenfranchised, they hold the key to the reconciliation of a country split evenly over the issue? Could it be, that because communities of color have been both courted and targeted by BIG Abortion, like Robert Smalls we have extensive knowledge of the dangers in the waters of life and understand the signals and approaches needed to safely navigate the way to victory over abortion on demand in America? Could it be, that just as Republican President Rutherford Birchard Hayes compromised in 1877 and Democratic President Andrew Johnson scuttled the “Port Royal Experiment“, the solution to the problems that perplex the Pro-Life movement isn’t political? Could it be, that after forty (40) years of legally protected abortion on demand in America combined with the loss of over fifty-six (56) million lives with thirty (30) percent of those babies being Black Americans, it’s now clear that like Robert Smalls, Pro-Life leaders in communities of color will have to commandeer the Pro-Life movement’s ship and rescue our people? Could it be, that at the rate Black America is aborting her children,72 that at the rate her children are being born to unwed mothers,73 that at the rate her children acquire STDs,74 that at the rate her children account for the people living with HIV in the United States,75 that at the rate her children in High School are below basic proficiency in math,76 that at the rate her children are being incarcerated,77 that time is running out on her future? Could it be, that like Hannah Smalls “I will go, and where [ my people will ] die, I will die trying to reach them for Christ’s sake?”

I think it could.

Brothers, we need to talk.

Reference(s):

01. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).02. Avis Thomas-Lester, “Civil War hero Robert Smalls Seized The Opportunity To Be Free”, The Washington Post (http://bit.ly/YfCtec).03. Joel Allen, “”Scott Sworn In As 1st Black Republican in Congress From The Deep South Since reconstruction”, CarolinaLive.Com, WPDE News Channel 15 (http://1.usa.gov/S3TKnv).04. Robert Smalls, “Letter From The Negro Robert Smalls”, The Washington Repuplican (http://bit.ly/16ZMaQz) or (http://bit.ly/12ygyhd).05. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).06. Ibid.07. Dennis Adams, “Robert Smalls War Hero And Legislator (1839-1915)” (http://bit.ly/9MqIcI).08. Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Slavery And The Making Of America – Episode 4: “The Challenge of Freedom” (http://to.pbs.org/12d6wSO).09. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).10. Ibid.11. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls? (1839-1915): The Early Years” (http://bit.ly/RwMGBs).12. Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Slavery And The Making Of America – Episode 4: “The Challenge of Freedom” (http://to.pbs.org/12d6wSO).13. Confederate States of America, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/TFxeY).14. USS Planter (1862), Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1bixAqx).15. Ibid.16. Ibid.17. Ibid.18. History Revived, “Smalls’ Contributions” (http://bit.ly/16joe8v).19. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).20. Ibid.21. Howard Westwood, “Black Troops, White Commanders And Freedmen During The Civil War”, SIU Press, October 1st, 1991, p.74 (http://bit.ly/12ddveD).22. Ibid.23. Robert Smalls Annual Lecture Series, The University of South Carolina African American Studies Program, 2012 Lecturer (http://bit.ly/16jsyEA).24. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Smalls During The Civil War” (http://bit.ly/18486OM).25. Ibid.26. Ibid.27. Michael Canaan, “05/13/1862 – Robert Smalls Comandeers His Way to Freedom and Greatness”, BlackHistory.Com (http://bit.ly/1a6MTBj).28. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).29. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 1 (http://bit.ly/12SZS32).30. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).31. Ibid.32. Walter Hoye, “Environmental Products (4): The Compromise of 1877: The Republican Party Preferred Power”, Issue No.: 2012.149 (http://bit.ly/K13YAe).33. African American Registry, “Naval Hero And Politician, Robert Smalls”, Date: Friday, April 5th, 1839 (http://bit.ly/HnurI7).34. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 147 (http://bit.ly/12U2WjG).35. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 142 (http://bit.ly/1bjzoQg).36. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, P. 132 (http://bit.ly/15sciUO).37. Redeemers, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1WW9bS).38. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Reconstruction and Smalls’ Political Career” (http://bit.ly/12zyjNo).39. Eric Foner, “Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction” Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 198. (http://bit.ly/184Zd7I).40. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Reconstruction and Smalls’ Political Career” (http://bit.ly/12zyjNo).41. Benjamin Tillman, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/aJFC4c).42. Fox Butterfield, “All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence” (http://bit.ly/10K8IDM).43. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Robert Smalls at the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention” (http://bit.ly/12zyjNo).44. Mark Yost, “From Slave to Statesman”, Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2012 (http://on.wsj.com/Jwa9gw).45. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Robert Smalls During the Latter Years” (http://bit.ly/14FlyUu).46. Dennis Adams, “Robert Smalls War Hero And Legislator (1839-1915)” (http://bit.ly/9MqIcI).47. Ben Tillman Statue, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/12A694S).48. Hagley Museum & Library, “The duPonts And The Civil War”, Robert Smalls: Freedom (http://bit.ly/13y6oUg).49. Howard Westwood, “Black Troops, White Commanders And Freedmen During The Civil War”, SIU Press, September 9th, 2008, p.74 (http://bit.ly/12A7d8H).50. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 60 (http://bit.ly/15sPBjf).51. Samuel Francis Du Pont, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/12A7WXo).52. DuPont, “1804 Black Powder” (http://bit.ly/184doq6).53. Hagley Museum & Library, “The duPonts And The Civil War”, Robert Smalls: Freedom (http://bit.ly/13y6oUg).54. Blain Roberts and Ethan J. Kytle, “Robert Smalls’s Great Escape”, The New York Times, Saturday, May 12th, 2012 (http://nyti.ms/18L7jls) and Robert Smalls, “Service to the Union”, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1856ReX).55. Hagley Museum & Library, “The duPonts And The Civil War”, Robert Smalls: Freedom (http://bit.ly/13y6oUg).56. Ibid.57. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 67 (http://bit.ly/12p97b6).58. Ibid, p. 68 (http://bit.ly/12WgKG1).59. Blain Roberts and Ethan J. Kytle, “Robert Smalls’s Great Escape”, The New York Times, Saturday, May 12th, 2012 (http://nyti.ms/18L7jls) and Robert Smalls, “Service to the Union”, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1856ReX).60. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, “Appomattox Court House: Black Soldiers on the Appomattox Campaign” (http://1.usa.gov/12jJNba).

Did You Know: “Several regiments of United States Colored Troops fought on the front line in the Battle of Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9, 1865. Blacks served in segregated units under white officers. The U.S. Army would not be integrated until the Korean War.”

61. American Civil War, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/BWGAf) and IMPORTANT PROCLAMATIONS, “The Belligerent Rights of the Rebels at an End. All Nations Warned Against Harboring Their Privateers. If They Do Their Ships Will be Excluded from Our Ports. Restoration of Law in the State of Virginia. The Machinery of Government to be Put in Motion There.”, The New York Times, Wednesday, May 10th, 1865 (http://nyti.ms/1dfjYL0).62. Port Royal Experiment, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/15bHWDM).63. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 65 (http://bit.ly/18Lfm1q).64. Edward A. Miller, “Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress, 1839-1915”, University of South Carolina Press, 1995, p. 17 (http://bit.ly/12jNptP).65. Dennis M. Howard, “The Abortion Index” (http://bit.ly/9FPAN1).66. Ibid.67. Lori Hoye, “Practicality, Pragmatism And Polls”, Thursday, March 4th, 2010 (http://bit.ly/aUt60q).68. Dennis M. Howard, “The Abortion Index” (http://bit.ly/9FPAN1).69. Ibid.70. According to the Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States: Who Has Abortions?”, August 2011 (http://bit.ly/12p97b6) “non-Hispanic Black women for 30%, Hispanic women for 25%” have abortions.71. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) the most recent “Abortion Surveillance Report” of 2009 (http://1.usa.gov/T6gz7H) “non-Hispanic white women and non-Hispanic black women accounted for the largest percentages of abortions (37.7% and 35.4%, respectively).”

Please Note: That of the 52 reporting areas (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City) the above CDC report excludes data from California, Delaware, Maryland, and New Hampshire. Still further note that according to the latest information available from the Guttmacher Institute “State Facts About Abortion: California”, January 2011 (http://bit.ly/11QeYuT), California could be considered, by its sheer numbers, the nation’s Abortion Capital. For more information click here: http://bit.ly/12Wyndk.

This classic commentary on the Emancipation Proclamation, “Abe Lincoln’s Last Card; or, Rouge et Noir” (Red and Black), created by Englishman John Tenniel for the London Punch (a British weekly magazine of humour and satire, Volume 43, October 18th, 1862, p. 168.), was inspired after the London Times stated that Lincoln had played his “last card” in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Notice that Lincoln is a bit pudgy around the waist, suggesting that he is out of shape and not fit to fight. Also notice Lincoln’s hair is in points, suggesting the horns of a devil. Apparently the London Punch viewed the Emancipation Proclamation as the gesture of a wily but weary and desperate gambler driven to engage his last resource. 1

Republican President Abraham Lincoln considered the Emancipation Proclamation to be the heart and soul of his legacy: “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper. If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” 3 — Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, January 1st, 1863

Fearing the Emancipation Proclamation would be received as the desperate act of a Commander-In-Chief losing the war, Secretary of State William Seward asked the president to wait for a Union victory before issuing the order.4 Two (2) months later, when Union troops rejected Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Maryland at Antietam Creek on September 17th, 1862, Lincoln saw his opportunity.5 On September 22nd, 1862, President Lincoln issued his PreliminaryEmancipation Proclamation,6 giving the South one hundred (100) days to reverse their rebellion or face losing their slaves. On both sides of the Missouri Compromise Line, Lincoln’s order was condemned and cursed as a usurpation of property rights (i.e., the right to own and sell slaves) and a calculated effort to start race war.7 Nevertheless, when the South refused to relent, President Lincoln, kept his word and issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on Thursday, January 1st, 1863.8 With this unnumbered Executive Order,9President Lincoln took a definitive stand on the most contentious issue in American history and clearly redefined the Union’s goals and strategy. By playing the “Race Card” President Lincoln sounded the death knell for both slavery and the confederate resistance. Still the President wasn’t done. Please notice how skillfully Lincoln chose his words in the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation in an effort to affect only those states still in rebellion as of Thursday, January 1st, 1863 10 and at the same time shape the framing of the Civil War’s end game document (i.e., the 14th Amendment to United States Constitution).

Playing The Race Card In 1863

It Was Not About Racism. It Was About Winning!

“Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States.” 11 — Frederick Douglass

In 1857, Hinton Rowan Helper (1829-1909), a rabid racist and the son of a western North Carolina farmer, published one of the most controversial books ever written about slavery. In his book entitled “The Impending Crisis of the South,” Helper argued that slavery was incompatible with economic progress. Using statistics drawn from the 1850 census, Helper maintained that the North was growing far faster than the South and that slavery was the cause of the South’s economic failure. Helper believed slavery doomed the South because it was inefficient, wasteful, degraded labor, inhibited urbanization, thwarted industrialization, and stifled progress.12 Not only did slavery choke commerce and malign manufacturing, it also impacted the South’s ability to fight the war. As the slave population increased, so did the demand for the human resources (i.e., fighting men), financial resources (i.e., gold) and natural resources (i.e., land) to manage the very real threat of an internal rebellion from a very hostile slave population. This is clearly seen in the decennial census tables below.13

As the slave population increased, so increased the inevitability of the North’s victory and Lincoln knew it. President Lincoln had finally come around to understand what Frederick Douglass was advising and knew all along (i.e., that Black slaves had“a deeper interest in the defeat and humiliation of the rebels than all others.“).14 So in an effort to win the war, seize the moral high ground and slow down the momentum the property rights advocates in the North were building up for the South, Lincoln played the Race Card, executively ordered the Emancipation Proclamation, enlisted, equipped, empowered and earnestly encouraged former slaves to fight for the North and in little more than two (2) years won the war.

Open Letter To The Republican Party

I’m Hearing The GOP Is Dead In Black America

“By abandoning their owners, coming uninvited into Union lines, and offering their assistance as laborers, pioneers, guides, and spies, slaves forced federal soldiers at the lowest level to recognize their importance to the Union’s success. That understanding traveled quickly up the chain of command. In time, it became evident even to the most obtuse federal commanders that every slave who crossed into Union lines was a double gain: one subtracted from the Confederacy and one added to the Union. The slaves’ resolute determination to secure their liberty converted many White Americans to the view that the security of the Union depended upon the destruction of slavery.” 15 — Ira Berlin

It’s The Fortieth (40) Year Since Roe And Doe

In The 150th Year Since The Emancipation Proclamation

“The Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important documents in the nation’s history, led to the greatest freeing of people in history until the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe in World War II.” 16 — Rick Moriarty

It’s clear, the Emancipation Proclamation redefined the war, altered end-game goals, immediately freed thousands of slaves in Union held territories of the South and offered freedom to all slaves as the Union Army pushed deeper into the South towards the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia.17It’s clear the Emancipation Proclamation shrewdly stayed the hand of foreign powers such as Britain and France who were considering supporting the South, but reconsidered because of the North’s victory at Antietam, as many in Europe were against slavery and many more were reluctant to intervene on the side of a lost cause.18It’s clear that the Emancipation Proclamation set the stage for improved race relations in the nation (i.e., the passage of the Thirteenth (13th) Amendment to the United States Constitution that formally abolished slavery),19 Reconstruction in the South 20 and laid a sure foundation (Isaiah 28:16) for the Fourteenth (14th) Amendment to the United States Constitution that passionately, purposefully and resolutely established PERSONHOOD.21It’s clear that maintaining an increasing slave population, managing desertions, defeats and casualties, and mooring morale while fighting a foe whose numbers were increasing from the inrush of former Black slaves was more than an impending crisis for the South. It’s clear that President Lincoln’s cabinet of advisors did not initially support the Emancipation Proclamation.22It’s clear that emancipating the slaves was not unanimously supported in the North as the Honorable William Allen, the Democratic Representative from Ohio vehemently argued against a bill calling for the use of Negro soldiers in his speech to the House of Representatives on Monday, February 2nd, 1863.23 Congressman Allen argued that such legislation would “destroy the relation of MASTER and SLAVE in the slaveholding States” 24 and that Lincoln’s Republican Party “has presented for the admiration of the American people the Negro in nearly every attitude which it was thought might win popular favor, and the last act in the great ‘drama’ is the Negro playing soldier.” 25It’s clear that even in the North, racism was alive and well. Yes, it’s clear that the Emancipation Proclamation was the “signature moment” of President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party’s legacy. However, it’s also very clear that as of Sunday, January 1st, 2013, we’ve entered both the forieth (40) year of legalized abortion and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and thus far the Republican Party has done NOTHING to celebrate or draw attention to its illustrious history. I wonder why? With more than fifty-five (55) million lives lost to legalize abortion thus far.26 With the ratio of United States abortions to battle deaths in all United States wars being eighty-four (84) to one (1) in favor of abortions.27 With over fifty-six (56) trillion dollars of total United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lost to abortion since 1967.28 With an estimated four hundred (400) trillion dollars of United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lost by the year 2040 if abortion continues.29 With seventy-one percent (71%) of the Hispanic vote, seventy-three percent (73%) of the Asian vote and ninety-three percent (93%) of the Black vote going to Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama II.30 With College Republicans abandoning their Party’s platform planks on abortion,31,32 contraception (i.e., abortifacients),33 same-sex marriage34and on record applauding Planned Parenthood’s rebranding and public relations offensive against life at conception as “especially effective with young people, leading many of those who self-identify as Pro-Life to support the abortion giant.35 With a recent survey finding nearly half of those college-aged being completely unaware that Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the entire world) performs abortions.36 I cannot help but wonder why the Republican Party has not learned from the 1st Republican President of the United States 37 and realized that playing the Race Card by enlisting, equipping, empowering and earnestly encouraging Black Americans to fight for the eternal and transcendent values of Life and Liberty in its platform is the empirical road to victory. Hmmmmm … now that I think of it, there have been seventeen (17) Republican Presidents of the United States since Abraham Lincoln. Hmmmmm … perhaps, it’s really just a small wonder why the The Republican Party hasn’t celebrated the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation thus far after all. 38,39Hmmmmm … maybe, if I’m honest with myself, I really don’t have to wonder why. Maybe I know why. Maybe we all do.

“A majority of people in Colorado voted for abortion, I think a majority of people in Michigan are for abortion, I think in both cases, well, certainly in Michigan they will vote for it [ abortion ] because they think that what’s going to be aborted generally are the little Black bastards.” — Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 1

White House Tape 700/10 — Monday, April 3rd, 1972

“…as I told you – we talked about it earlier – that a hell of a lot people want to control the Negro bastards.” — Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 2

White House Tape 700/10 — Monday, April 3rd, 1972

“…you know what we are talking about – population control.” — Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 3

White House Tape 700/10 — Monday, April 3rd, 1972

“…we’re talking really – and what John Rockefeller really realizes – look, the people in what we call our class control their populations. Sometimes they’ll have a family of six, or seven, or eight, or nine, but it’s exception.” — Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 4

White House Tape 700/10 — Monday, April 3rd, 1972

“People who don’t control their families are people in – the people that shouldn’t have kids. Now that’s …” — Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 5

White House Tape 700/10 — Monday, April 3rd, 1972

“What?” — Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 6

“Back in the olden days, the RepublicanParty was the party that supported people’s individual rights and keeping government out of personal health care decisions, so I think there’s a history they can go back to.” 7 — President Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood

“A lot of Republicans used to support family planning, and RichardNixon signed that first federal planning program into law. There’s a clear pathway to [ win back women’s support ], and it’s to listen to the middle of their party instead of the extreme fringe.” 8 — President Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood

Family–Planning Roots

“Eugenicsis … the most adequate and thorough avenue to thesolution of racial, political and social problems.” 9 — Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood founder and member in good standing with the racist American Eugenics Society (AES).

“The campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics.” 10 — Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood founder and member in good standing with the racist American Eugenics Society (AES).

“I consider that the world and almost our civilization for the next twenty-five years, is going to depend upon a simple, cheap, safe contraceptive to be used in poverty stricken slums, jungles, and among the most ignorant people. Even this will not be sufficient, because Ibelievethatnow, immediately, thereshouldbenationalsterilization for certain dysgenic types of our population who are being encouraged to breed and would die out were the government not feeding them.” 11 — Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood founder and member in good standing with the racist American Eugenics Society (AES).

Clearly Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon, racist as the day is long during a summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, was greatly influenced by John D. Rockefeller III as documented in the White House taped conversation above. John D. Rockefeller III was both the founder and major supporter of the Population Council.12 Rooted in the eugenics movement, John D. Rockefeller III appointed Frederick Osborn, a celebrated eugenicist, author of “Preface to Eugenics” (New York, 1940) and one of the founding members of the American Eugenics Society (AES) as the first president of the Population Council.13 Osborn served as President of the Population Council until 1959.14 However, in 1968 Osborn wrote, “Eugenic goals are most likely to be achieved under another name than eugenics.” 15 Moreover in 1972, right after Roe v. Wade was reargued on October 11th, the American Eugenics Society was reorganized and renamed to “The Society for the Study of Social Biology” and now known as “The Society for Biodemography and Social Biology.” 16

According to Osborn …

“The name was changed because it became evident that changes of a eugenic naturewouldbemadefor reasons other than eugenics, and that tying a eugenic label on them would more often hinder than help their adoption. Birth control and abortion are turning out to be great eugenic advances of our time.” 17

Republican Party Roots

“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.” 18 — Frederick Douglass

The “Family–Planning Roots” of the Republican Party, purported by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, is a deliberate disconnect and departure from the real and well-documented roots of the Republican Party. In May of 1854 and in response to the Pro-SlaveryDemocraticParty, Anti-Slavery members of Congress formed the Republican Party.19 The original RepublicanPartyPlatform in 1856 had nine (9) planks, six (6) of which were dedicated to EndingSlavery and SecuringEqualRights for Black Americans. The Democratic Party Platform of 1856 supported and defended slavery.20 The 1860 Democratic Party Platform not only endorsed the Fugitive Slave Law but also celebrated and promoted the Dred Scott decision.” 21

THE BLACK VOTE, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE LAST STRAW!

From 1870 to 1876 all of us were Republicans. However, since the 1876 Presidential election and “TheCompromiseof1877” the Republican Party has cared more about power than people. [See Notes] The last straw came on Wednesday, October 26th, 1960 when Democratic Massachusetts Senator and Presidential candidate John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy telephoned Coretta Scott King from Chicago and expressed his concern about the jail sentence handed down to her husband Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Kennedy’s brother and campaign manager Robert Francis Kennedy called Judge J. Oscar Mitchell from New York the following day, reportedly to inquire into King’s right to bail. Amazingly and later that same day, King was released on a $2,000 appeal bond after nine (9) days imprisonment. In this interview, King concedes that Kennedy “served as a great force in making my release possible.” While King maintained a nonpartisan stance in the presidential race, his father (i.e., Martin Luther King, Sr., “Daddy King”) publicly announced he was switching his support from the Republican Party’s Presidential Candidate of the United States Richard Milhous Nixon to John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy in light of the Democratic candidate’s call to his daughter-in-law Coretta Scott King. When Daddy King switched his vote to the Democratic Party, this marked the end of a ninety (90) year relationship (from 1870 to 1960) between the Republican Party and the Black vote. [See Notes]

There Is No Way To Escape The Implications!

“There is no way to escape the implications. When an organization has a history of racism, when its literature is openly racist, when its goals are self-consciously racial, and when its programs invariably revolve around race, it doesn’t take an expert to realize that the organization is indeed racist.” 22 — William L. Davis, a Black Financial Analyst

While today’s Republican Party has long and incontestably departed from its sonorous and well-documented abolitionist roots, it is equally apparent that the Democratic Party has NOT departed from its wicked and well-documented racist roots. There is no way to escape the implicationsthat President Barack Hussein Obama II and the Democratic Party are co-conspirators in the genocide of Black America. Both wholeheartedly endorse, support and promote an organization whose mission is one of populationcontrol.23 An organization that was founded by MargaretSanger,24 a well-documented proponent of eugenics,25 a celebrated KluKluxKlan speaker26 and one of the architects of the now infamous 1939 NegroProject,27 whose sole objective was to infiltrate the Blackcommunity by hiring Blackpreachers28 and presenting birth control as a health option for Blackwomen.29 An organization, that according to a Life Dynamics report called, “RacialTargetingandPopulationControl,” which cross-examined zip codes of minority neighborhoods and abortion facilities across America, is the leader in an industry that has installed 83% of their abortion or abortion-referring facilities in minority neighborhoods.30 An organization that according the very latest research released by Protecting Black Life (an outreach of the Life Issues Institute) has 79% of its surgical abortion facilities located within walking distance of Black American and/or Hispanic/Latino communities.31 An organization that today is the largestabortionprovider in the United States of America,32 performing about one-third of all abortions in the country,33 performing more than 329,000 abortions a year, 27,416 abortions a month, 6,326 abortions a week and over 900 abortions a day.34 An organization that earned an estimated $154milliondollars from those 329,000 abortions35 where 40% of abortions were performed on minority women.36 An organization that is financially backed by the United States government, receiving 46% of its annual budget37 in the form of more than $487milliontaxpayerdollars a year.38 An organization whose President took a break from her “day job” running the organization’s abortion business to campaign full-time to re-elect President Barack Obama39 and gave more than $15milliondollars to the President’s re-election campaign.40 An organization whose criminalnegligence and depravedindifference botched Chicago’s Tanya Reaves second trimester abortion and let the sister bleed for over five (5) hours before calling emergency services.41 An organization where there have been fourteen (14) cases of seriousmedicalemergencies documented at their abortion facilities withinthelast24months.42 An organization that when investigators called the same abortion facilities that had recent and documented medical emergencies, denied any incidents occurred at their abortion facilities andliedabouttherisks of the abortion procedure.43 An organization that’s been caught advising sex-traffickers on how to secure abortions for underagegirls with no questions asked.44 An organization where donors can give money specifically for the abortion of a Blackbaby.45 An organization whose President publicly claimed her organization provides mammograms, the breastcancerscreening procedure for women, but whose staff in twenty-seven (27) different states publicly stated: “Wedon’tprovidethoseserviceswhatsoever.” 46 An organization that is currently embroiled in a lawsuit that alleges its involvement in “repeatedfalse, fraudulent, and ineligibleclaims for Medicaid reimbursements” through the Texas Women’s Health Program.47 What is the name of this organization that uses almost half a billion taxpayer dollars to target Blackneighborhoods, perform and botch late-term abortions, advise sex traffickers and pimps48 on how to secure taxpayer funded abortions for underage girls and falsely claim to provide life saving breast cancer screening? Why, it’s Planned Parenthood andthere is no way to escape the implicationsthatPlanned Parenthood is racistand that after the 2012 election,the GOP is done.

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):

· Reconstruction was ended by the Compromise of 1877, a morally flawed but historically consequential arrangement that put Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House and removed federal troops from the South. [ClickHere] This compromise consisted of an agreement to drop the Negro problem from the agenda of national policy questions. Hayes called it the ‘let alone‘ policy. It was similar to what others before him had called ‘popular sovereignty‘ and to what others after him have called ‘benign neglect.’ In each case it meant the same thing: no issue of justice was at stake and, therefore, national policy was not required to address the issue. Whatever the Negro problem was, it was not a public problem.” ↩

· King was in the Georgia State Prison, Reidsville, Georgia because a group of students representing “The Committee on Appeal for Human Rights,” led by Mr. Lonnie C. King, a student at Morehouse College, had called for his help. Dr. King delayed his trip to Nigeria and joined the student sit-in movement of Atlanta, Georgia. [ClickHere] What happened to Dr. King that did not happen to the students that were arrested in the same demonstration? Dr. King was transferred to the “Dekalb County Jail” and charged with parole violation. On Wednesday, May 4th, 1960 King was arrested and issued a citation for driving without a license. He paid the fine and went on with his life. Judge J. Oscar Mitchell claimed Dr. King was also given twelve months probation. This was not known to Dr. King or his representative who paid the fine for the minor traffic violation. Judge Oscar Mitchell of Dekalb County proceeded to sentence Dr. King to four month’s hard labor in the Georgia State Prison for a minor traffic violation. This was the first time such a sentence had been imposed in the history of the state of Georgia! Around four o’clock a.m. the next morning, officers of the law put chains (shackles) on Dr. King, threw him in the prison vehicle, drove 230 miles across the state and incarcerated him in Reidsville State Prison. This was brutality, injustice and evil in high places. However, within less than twenty-four hours the nation and the world responded. Because a young senator from Massachusetts intervened on the side of justice. Senator John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy took a risk for righteousness in support of Dr. King. Judge Mitchell reversed his ruling. This single act of moral and political courage tipped the scales in the presidential election of 1960. ↩

“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong!” — President Abraham Lincoln

“Three years into the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wrote the following letter in order to summarise on paper some points [ including his failures ] he had previously made regarding the recruitment of slaves as Union soldiers and, ultimately, their freeing from the institution of slavery itself. Come the end of the war, all slaves in the U.S. had been freed and, after the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in December of 1865, slavery was abolished.” 1

“If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.” 2 — Yours truly, President Abraham Lincoln, signed Monday, April 4th, 1864.

A Letter To My Fellow Christians

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” 3 — President John Quincy Adams

In this letter President Abraham Lincoln summarizes a conversation he had with three (3) Kentuckians: Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, Albert G. Hodges and Archibald Dixon. Hodges was the editor of the Frankfort Commonwealth and Dixon served in the U.S. Senate from 1852 to 1855. Governor Bramlette had protested the recruiting of Black regiments in Kentucky. 4

Lincoln’s letter gives us an extraordinary glimpse into his heart and mind as he faced the challenges of his constitutional responsibility as President of the United States of America and why he changed his inaugural position of non-interference with slavery to one of immediate emancipation. Please note that President Lincoln closed his letter to Hodges with a reference to slavery that reflects back on his inaugural address of 1865. In the end President Lincoln writes: “If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.” 5

In my opinion, President Lincoln had come to the point in his development as a child of God that many Christians must likewise reach today, before we cast our vote for the next President of our country tomorrow.

If Abortion Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong!

Election Day Tomorrow Is The Most Important Election since 1860.

Without question, the biological product of a human male and a human female is a human life, with a human nature. Without argument, abortion on demand sheds the blood and takes the life of an innocent human being. As members of the Body of Christ, let us therefore be transparent with each other and confess, without debate, that legalized abortion on demand is incontestably evil.

Brothers and Sisters In Christ …

Tomorrow we vote.

With this in mind and in the same spirit of President Abraham Lincoln’s letter to Albert G. Hodges dated Monday, April 4th, 1864, here is my letter to you on the eve of our 2012 Presidential election.

My message is simple.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that has killed more babies in the last forty-four (44) years than the population of our seventy-two (72) largest U.S. cities 6is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support abortion which hurts women, and kills more than 3,000 babies each day 7is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support late-term abortions, even during the 9th month 8is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support abortion on demand based on the size, level of development, environment and degree of dependency of the baby 9is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support abortion on demand based on the sins of the father 10is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support legislation that forces us to pay for abortion with our tax dollars, including secret abortions on thirteen (13) year old girls without their parents consent 11is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support legislation that requires states to provide free sterilizations to fifteen (15) year-old girls even if their parents do not consent to the procedure 12is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support legislation that requires insurers to provide free (cancer-causing) birth control pills and Depo Provera birth control 13is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that targets communities of color by installing 79% of its surgical abortion facilities within walking distance of Black American and/or Hispanic|Latino neighborhoods 14is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that kills more Black babies in less than four (4) days than Black lives lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in eighty-six (86) years 15is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that kills over 1,400 Black babies for every 1,000 Black babies born alive in New York City 16is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry whose business results in Black American women having triple the risk of early preterm birth (EPB), defined as delivery at less than 32.0 weeks gestation, and quadruple the risk of extremely preterm birth (XPB), defined as delivery at less than 28.0 weeks gestation, compared with non-Black American women (1.39% in Blacks vs. 0.35% in Whites) 17is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that endorse and promote unlimited abortions and undermine biblically defined marriage 18is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that attack the Church and her freedom 19is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that serve the interests of a party that struggles with including the word “God” and “Jerusalem” in its platform 20is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that has killed more babies in the last forty-four (44) years than all the American battle deaths in all U.S. wars since 1776 21is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that has killed more babies in the last forty-four (44) years than all Americans of all ages and races murdered daily by handguns 22is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that would rather shut down the entire U.S. government than stop funding abortion on demand with tax-payer dollars 23is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that would vote against stopping the killing of children in the wombs of their mothers based on race and gender 24is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry whose business contributes to the Black American fertility rate dropping to 1.9 (well below the population replacement rate of 2.1) in 2003 25is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry that boasts a 1.3% a year reduction rate in abortions, a rate that would take fifty-three (53) years to reduce the number of babies killed in the wombs of their mothers by fifty percent (50%) 26is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If a Christian voting for political candidates that support an industry whose business is biologically linked to increased breast cancer risk 27is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

If nothing is wrong, “if in this life only we have hope in Christ,” then perhaps the Apostle Paul was right when he said: “we are of all men most miserable” 28 having served Christ in vain.

In Closing

“In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years struggle the nation’s condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it. 29 — President Abraham Lincoln, Monday, April 4th, 1864.

How we as Christians vote tomorrow will either signal a renewal of our hearts and minds toward Christ or reflect the depth of the depravity in our souls. Voting is a blood bought and thereby precious privilege we inherited from those who died for our freedom before us. John Jay, a leading opponent of slavery, was an American Statesman, Patriot, Diplomat, a Founding Father of our country, and when nominated by George Washington became the first (1st) Chief Justice of the United States of America. 30 Chief Justice Jay believed that the most effective way of ensuring world peace was through propagation of the Christian gospel. Perhaps Jay, in a letter addressed to Pennsylvania House of Representatives member John Murray, dated Saturday, October 12th, 1816, said it best:

“Real Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others, and therefore will not provoke war. Almost all nations have peace or war at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect, and who are not always wise or virtuous. Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and preferChristians for their rulers.” 31

Poor, Rural Black American Men In The South Thought They Were Receiving “Free Health Care” From The United States Government

“The United States government did something that was wrong–deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens … clearly racist!” — President William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton’s apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16th, 1997 1

For forty (40) years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. 2

By 1910 my grandparents, in the South are two (2) and four (4) years old.

Executive Summary

“Arguably The Most Infamous Bio-Medical Research Study In U.S. History” 3

“The men’s status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people.” — Dr. John R. Heller, M.D., Director of the Public Health Service’s Division of Venereal Diseases 4

Between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama the United States Public Health Service (PHS), which by the fall of 1979 would become the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)5,6 wholly dedicated to “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America,” 7 studied the natural progression of untreated syphilis in Black American men who thought they were receiving free health care from their government to the bitter end. 8United States Public Health Service investigators recruited a total of six hundred (600) impoverished, Black American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama. 9 Three hundred and ninety-nine (399) had previously contracted syphilis before the study began. Two hundred and one (201) never had the disease. 10 As reasonable compensation for participating in the study, the Black American menwere offered a free health care planthat included free meals and free burial insurance from the then trusted United States government. 11 The test subjects were never told they had syphilis and they were never treated for it. 12 According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the men were told they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. 13 While the Tuskegee study failed all ethical standards (including the 1947 Nuremberg Code14) protecting the legal rights of research subjects and prohibiting human experimentation, it was especially villainous, vile and vicious because the study’s researchers knowingly failed to treat patients after penicillin was validated as an effective cure for syphilis in the 1940s. 15IN SUMMARY: Twenty-eight (28) men died of syphilis, one-hundred (100) men died from related complications, at least forty (40) wives were infected and nineteen (19) children contracted congenital syphilis at birth. 16

By 1932 my parents, born in the South, are two (2) and three (3) years old.

“The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatment. No new drugs were tested; neither was any effort made to establish the efficacy of old forms of treatment. It was a non–therapeutic experiment, aimed at compiling data on the effects of the spontaneous evolution of syphilis on Black males.” — James Howard Jones, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment 18

The Oslo study of Untreated Syphilis, began in 1909 and was published in 1928. 19 This epidemiological investigation of the natural course of the syphilitic infection based upon a re-study of the “Boeck-Bruusgaard Material” reported on the natural history of untreated syphilis in White males. 20 By 1932 the overtly racist assumptions then prevalent in American medicine, inclined physicians to believe that syphilis would react differently in Black American men. 21Dr. Taliaferro Clark, who is credited with the Tuskegee study’s origin, initially wanted to study untreated syphilis in a group of Black American men for six (6) to eight (8) months and then follow up with a treatment phase. 22 However, Dr. Clark didn’t like how expensive the treatment phase of the study was, calling the “spinal taps” given to the patients “treatment” and agreed with the deceptive methods recommended by his deputy, Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr, such as not disclosing the seriousness of untreated syphilis and misrepresenting daily doses of aspirin and iron supplements as useful medication to the volunteers of the study. 23,24 To better understand Dr. Clark’s attitude toward the Black American’s in the study, when referring to the volunteers he said: “These Negroes are very ignorant and easily influenced by things that would be of minor significance in a more intelligent group.” 25Dr. Clarkretired after the first year and was replaced by Dr. Vonderlehr who went on to gain the consent of the volunteers to endure “spinal taps” by calling them “special free treatment.” 26,27Dr. Vonderlehr retired in 1943 and was replaced by Dr. John R. Heller as Director of the United States Public Health Service’s Division of Venereal Diseases. 28 In 1972 when the public learned the truth about the study, Dr. Heller refused to acknowledge the inherent inhumanity of the study, its similarities to Nazi human experimentation and defended the study’s unethical practices saying: “There was nothing in the experiment that was unethical or unscientific.” 29 “For the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs. Some merely followed orders, others worked for the glory of science.” 30

By the end of 1956 I am four (4) months old in Detroit, Michigan.

Part Two: On The Hill

A Congressional Hearing Was In Order

The Democratic Party Called for A Congressional Hearing To Investigate

“I didn’t want to believe it. This was the Public Health Service. We didn’t do things like that.” — Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower responsible for ending the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. 31

In December of 1965 Peter Buxtun, a social worker and epidemiologist in San Francisco, was hired by the Public Health Service to interview patients with sexually transmitted diseases. 32 In the course of his work, Buxtun learned of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. In November 1966 he filed an official protest and the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) responded by asserting that the study must continue until all of the patients had died, allowing the researchers the opportunity to autopsy all the patients. 33 This conclusion was also backed by the National Medical Association and the American Medical Association. 34 In 1968 Buxtun, filed another protest and again, his concerns were ruled irrelevant. 35 By 1972 Peter Buxtun leaked information on the Tuskegee Experiment to Associated Press reporter Jean Heller (no relation to Dr. John R. Heller). Jean Heller’s story, in the Washington Evening Star exposing the ruthlessly racist Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was published on Tuesday, July 25th, 1972. 36 The next day, the story became front-page news in the New York Times. 37Senator Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts, a member of the Democratic Party, called for a Congressional hearing where Peter Buxtun testified. 38 Shortly thereafter (Thursday, November 16th, 1972) the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was terminated. 39Thank God! Understandably, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment created a deep and abiding distrust of governmental health care programs among Black Americans that is still in effect today.

By 1972 I am a sixteen (16) year old, high schooler in California.

In 1972 Democrat Carl Bert Albert was Speaker of the House.

Part Three: In The White House

A Presidential Apology Was In Order

The Democratic Party Reached Out To Restore The Trust Of Black American’s

“What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry … To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist.” — President William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton’s apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16th, 1997 40

The United States Public Health Service’s Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was reminiscent of Nazi experiments in Nuremberg. For twenty-five (25) years Black Americans lived with the explanation that the United States Public Health Service’s researchers “merely followed orders” or sacrificially “worked for the glory of science.” I do not have the words to express how much it meant to Black Americans to hear President Clinton, on Friday, May 16th, 1997 apologize to the surviving Tuskegee patients on behalf of the nation.

By 1997 I am a licensed and ordained Baptist preacher in the Bay Area.

“To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish. What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say, on behalf of the American people: what the United States government did was shameful. And I am sorry. The American people are sorry — for the loss, for the years of hurt. You did nothing wrong, but you were grievously wronged. I apologize and I am sorry that this apology has been so long in coming.” 41

Today I work full time in the Pro-Life movement to reach Black America.

In 1973, just sixty-seven (67) days after Merlin K. DuVal, Assistant Secretary to the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), wrote to Dorothy P. Rice, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to terminate the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment in 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided both Roe and Doe, establishing a constitutional right to abortion on demand. 42

In 1972 Richard Milhous Nixon was President of the United States of America.

Conclusion

A New Order Is In Order

“Sincere,” “Sound” and “Good-Faith” Investments Are Needed

“I think he [Mitt Romney] has serious ideas. I just think those ideas would scare a lot of the American public. And I think that when the public hears them and hears that he is serious, then we get down to we’re not talking about Obamacare, we’re talking about your health care, we’re talking about your Social Security, we’re talking about your Medicare. When it starts coming into my house — that’s why I said when I spoke at the Martin Luther King Memorial, it’s not about Obama, it’s about your momma.” — Al Sharpton, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Live Thursday, December 29th, 2011 43

I am often asked to explain “how can” and “why do” Black American’s embrace Obamacare. Frankly … While Black Americans have already experienced the manifold blessings of “free health care” under both White Democratic and White Republican administrations, the Democratic Party has publicly acknowledged America’s racist tendencies and boldly invested in Black America by way of Black Americans. This is not to say that the Democratic Party’s investments in my community have been “sincere,”“sound” or even “good-faith” investments. Not at all. However, this is to deliberately say, that “sincere,”“sound” and “good-faith” investments are exactly how New Order Investments by the Republican Party can and will effectively reach voters in communities of color. So what does this look like? “Sincere,”“sound” and “good-faith” investments have always had the power to make amends. “Sincere” investments will acknowledge and accept responsibility for the harm caused by past failures to love communities of color and model genuinely new behavior by spending the time, talent and treasure required to renew and reconcile the relationship. “Sound” investments will overcome the damage to communities of color caused by “politically expedient” spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by getting resources out of Washington, D.C. and back into the private sector where they can be used productively to create businesses and jobs. “Good-faith” investments will make room at the decision table for members from communities of color and meet the physical needs of women, children and broken families without violating their religious convictions.

Epilogue

“What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.” — Frederick Douglass , “What The Black Man Wants” at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, April, 1865, Please note that Douglass’ speech was given within days of the close of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. 44

It’s interesting to note that January 2004 marked the death of Ernest Hendon, the last survivor of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Hendon was in the control group that did not have syphilis. He was 96 years old. It’s also interesting to note that January 2012 marked the 40th year since the termination of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Furthermore, it’s very interesting to note that January 2013 will mark the beginning of the 40th year of legalized abortion on demand that deliberately targets communities of color. As I earnestly reflect on these dates, I can’t help but wonder … Could all this just be interesting? Or am I seeing a pattern? To be more specific and more to the point … Could all this just be coincidence? Or am I actually seeing the reality of an old, evil and eugenic effort to eliminate communities of color still at work in America? In the privacy of my heart, I know the answer. Don’t you? In the privacy of our hearts, don’t we all know the answer?

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):

·Frequently Asked Questions Examining Tuskegee:Question: Why is it called the Tuskegee Study? Answer: “The formal title of the Study in its first medical publications was ‘Untreated Syphilis in the Male Negro.’ Beginning in 1954, the publications after that called it ‘the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis‘ or ‘the Tuskegee Study.’ It is not uncommon to name medical studies after the geographic location where they are done. When the newspaper story on the Study broke in 1972, the AP reporter Jean Heller called it ‘the Tuskegee Study‘ and the term ‘the Tuskegee Experiment‘ is often used as well.” Source: http://bit.ly/Mq79nx.

Reference(s):

01. Presidential Apology, U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee (http://1.usa.gov/ckDD3i).02. Tuskegee Experiment Test Subjects, “Biomedical Ephemera, Or: A Frog for Your Boils.” A photograph from this blog for all biological and medical ephemera, from the age of Abraham through the era of medical quackery and cure-all nostrums. (http://bit.ly/LolBMC).03. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/17wadX).04. Tuskegee University, “Impact on Health Care,” Quote from the Director of Venereal Diseases at the Public Health Service from 1943 to 1948 (http://bit.ly/Kr3e5a).05. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/17wadX).06. United States Public Health Service, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Md8wGN).07. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/4XuFpf).08. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/17wadX).09. Ibid.10. Ibid.11. Ibid.12. Ibid.13. Ibid.14. Nuremberg Code, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/gJAsaS).15. Penicillin, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/f57k5S).16. Back to Tuskegee, by Jeanne Winstead, Slide No. 16. (http://slidesha.re/bXnCMq).17. James Howard Jones, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (http://bit.ly/KqQawS).18. Ibid. (http://bit.ly/LcD4mt).19. The Oslo Study of Untreated Syphilis Review and Commentary, British Journal of Venereal Diseases, June 1956; 32(2): 70–78 (http://1.usa.gov/O2jUpE).20. Ibid.21. The Oslo Study, “Faces of Tuskegee” by the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University (http://bit.ly/MPqb2r).22. Ibid., Dr. Taliaferro Clark (http://bit.ly/MBmi4R).23. Ibid.24. Alan Bellows, “Bad Blood In Tuskegee” (http://bit.ly/LduslJ).25. Dave Wong and Stephanie Lord, “People of the Tuskegee Experiment” (http://bit.ly/LNGdiN). See also the LeNoir: Tuskegee Syphilis Study Lecture on video (http://bit.ly/KSpPhj).26. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, “Study Clinicians” (http://bit.ly/MCVAHc).27. Dave Wong and Stephanie Lord, “People of the Tuskegee Experiment,” Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr (http://bit.ly/LNGdiN).28. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, “Study Clinicians,” Dr. John R. Heller led the national division (http://bit.ly/MCVAHc).29. Aftermath of the Study, Dr. John R. Heller quote: (http://bit.ly/NtsIDV). See also New York Times, July 26, 1972, p1.30. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, “Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press” Dr. John Heller’s quote is in the chapter entitled: “The History of ‘Black Paranoia'” on page 67 (http://bit.ly/L0WfkY).31. Peter Buxtun, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MIKtKF).32. Ibid.33. Ibid.34. Study Termination, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MpOuFk).35. Peter Buxtun, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MIKtKF).36. Ibid.37. Ibid. See also “Effects of untreated syphilis in the negro male, 1932 to 1972: A closure comes to the Tuskegee study, 2004,” by Shamim M. Baker, Otis W. Brawley and Leonard S. Marks of the Urological Sciences Research Foundation. The article by Jean Heller, front page, New York Times, July 26, 1972. Investigative journalism first brought the story to public attention (http://bit.ly/fmdoUN). This news story is the property of Associated Press via Valeo Intellectual Property, Inc.38. Ibid.39. Memorandum, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of The Secretary, Merlin K. DuVal, M.D. says: “As recommended by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel, I have decided that the ‘Tuskegee Study‘ as a study of untreated syphilis must be terminated.” (http://bit.ly/LolBMC).40. Presidential Apology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee” (http://1.usa.gov/ckDD3i).41. Ibid.42. Roe v. Wade, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/11oVBK).43. Al Sharpton, “It’s Not About Obama, It’s About Your Momma” (http://bit.ly/vYz55I).44. Frederick Douglass, “What The Black Man Wants” at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, April, 1865, Douglass delivered the following speech on the subject: The Equality Of All Men Before The Law. Again, please note that Douglass’ speech was given within days of the close of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. (http://bit.ly/LHwoOC).

One Of The Worst Race Riots In Our Nation’s History Occurred In Tulsa.

“I took my little girl by the hand and fled out the west door on Greenwood. I did not take time to gat a hat for myself or baby, but started out north in Greenwood, running amidst showers of bullets from the machine gun located in the granay and from the men who were quickly surrounding our district.” — Mary E. Jones Parrish,, An eye-witness account of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot 1

According to the Tulsa Tribune, the National Guard mounted two machine gunsand fired into the area. Black Americans surrendered and were disarmed.They were taken in columns to Convention Hall, the McNulty Baseball Park, the Fairgrounds and to a flying field during the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. 2

Executive Summary

“The Worse Civil Disturbance Since The Civil War.” 3

“Personal belongings and household goods had been removed from many homes and piled in the streets. On the steps of the few houses that remained sat feeble and gray Negro men and women and occasionally a small child. The look in their eyes was one of dejection and supplication. Judging from their attitude, it was not of material consequence to them whether they lived or died. Harmless themselves, they apparently could not conceive the brutality and fiendishness of men who would deliberately set fire to the homes of their friends and neighbors and just as deliberately shoot them down in their tracks.” — Tulsa Daily World, June 2, 1921 4

Commonly known as “Black Wall Street,” the racially segregated district of Greenwood in Tulsa was one of the most affluent All-Black Communities in the United States of America. 5 In its day, Greenwwod served as a powerful economic model of market-based approaches to abject poverty through private ownership, conservative values and self-sufficiency for Black Americans only one generation away from over four hundred (400) years of chattel antebellum slavery. 6The area encompassed a population of 15,000 Black Americans. 7 However, in a matter of a fourteen (14) hour period, from Tuesday, May 31st, 1921 to Wednesday, June 1st, 1921, one of the worst race riots in the history of our nation destroyed a once thriving, thirty-five (35) square block Black Business District in northern Tulsa, Oklahoma. 8In the end, 10,000 Black Americans were homeless, over 800 injuries were reported and over 600 successful Black Businesses were lost. 9 Among these businesses were twenty-one (21) churches, twenty-one (21) restaurants, thirty (30) grocery stores and two (2) movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half-dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. 10 1,256 homes were reported burned and another 215 looted. 11 Property damage estimates ranging from 1.5 to 2 million dollars were reported which would amount to over twenty-one (21) million dollars in today’s money. 12 Of the thirty-seven (37) death certificates, twenty-five (25) were for Black males and twelve (12) for white males. While the true death toll will probably never be known, nine (9) Black victims were burned beyond recognition and could not identified. 13

Part One: Findings

On The Way To A Segregated “Colored” Restroom …

Tulsa Tribune Headline: “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator”

“I shined shoes with Dick Rowland. He was an orphan and had quit school to take care of himself. The Drexel Building was the only place downtown where we were allowed to use the restroom. Dick was a quite kind of fella. Never in no trouble. When he went to use the bathroom…in the elevator he slipped and bumped her, she screamed, he ran, and was accused of raping a white woman. “In broad daylight?” The Tribune wrote a story that triggered the crowd at the Court House: “To lynch a Negro tonight.” The Tribune called him “Diamond Dick.” Me, or nobody on Greenwood ever heard that name for him before. They invented it. Dick Rowland was poor as me. Neither of us probably ever saw a real diamond.” — Robert Fairchild, Sr., The oral account of a Black American eyewitness of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 14

Tulsa, Oklahoma was a segregated city where Jim Crow practices were live and legal. Black Americans were not allowed to use toilet facilities used by White people. 15 There was no separate facility for Black Americans at the shoeshine parlor where Dick Rowland worked. 16 So the owner of the parlor arranged for Black American employees to use the segregated “Colored” restroom on the top floor of the nearby Drexel Building at 319 S. Main Street where the Renberg’s Department Store occupied the first two floors. 17 On Monday, May 30th, 1921, Dick Rowland, a Black American believed to be nineteen (19), entered the Drexel building elevator to access the “Colored Only” restroom where he tripped, and while falling, latched on to the arm of the White elevator operator, Sarah Page, then seventeen (17) years old. 18 Startled, Sarah screamed and a White clerk in a first floor store called the police and reported seeing Dick Rowland flee from the elevator and out of the building. 19 The White clerk on the first floor described the incident as an attempted assault. 20 Subsequently, Dick Rowland was arrested on Tuesday, May 31st, 1921. 21According to the Tulsa World, “[Dick] Rowland‘s arrest the next morning was reported in a front-page story in that afternoon’s Tulsa Tribune. Headlined ‘Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator,’ the somewhat sensational account reported, accurately if perhaps imprudently, that [Dick] Rowland was to be charged with attempted assault. 22 It said [Dick] Rowland scratched [Sarah] Page and tore her clothes.” 23 While in custody, White citizens concerned for the safety of White women attempted to lynch Dick Rowland, 24 and Black citizens concerned for Dick Rowland’s life attempted to protect him 25 and the Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Riot of 1921 was on.

Part Two: The Aftermath

The Klu Klux Klan Benefited From The Riot

The “Assault” Case Against Dick Rowland Was Dropped

In the early 1900s the economic prosperity of Black Americans was often realized amidst violent racial and political tension. 26 In Oklahoma the Klu Klux Klan made its first major appearance shortly before the riot in Tulsa. 27 It has been estimated that there were about 3,200 members of the Klu Klux Klan in Tulsa in 1921. 28 As to be expected, researchers suspect that the incendiary impetus behind the riot in Tulsa was the Klu Klux Klan working in consort with ranking city officials and other sympathizers. However, it is interesting to note, that in the same month the case against Dick Rowland was dropped following the receipt of a letter from Sarah Page to Tulsa county attorney, John Seaver where she stated that she did not wish to prosecute the case, 29 a large Klu Klux Klan rally was held at Convention Hall. 30 Just three (3) months after the Riot, Wednesday, August 31st, 1921 in a private ceremony 300 Tulsans, supported by a throng of 1,500 onlookers, were initiated as the first class of the Tulsa Klan No. 2. 31 By September 1921 twenty (20) hooded vigilantes “bullwhipped” a suspected bootlegger, car thief and hijacker J. E. Frazier. Tulsa county attorney, John Seaver praised the Klu Klux Klan, intimated that Frazier probably got what he deserved and twelve (12) more “bullwhippings” followed. With the attack on Frazier, Tulsa’s Klu Klux Klan era was in full throttle. 32 In January of 1922, the Tulsa Benevolent Association of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a holding company for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. was formed. 33Washington E. Hudson, the attorney for Dick Rowland, was noted among the founding members of the Tulsa Benevolent Association, where in a field north of Owasso, Oklahoma, a nighttime “naturalization” ceremony initiated 1,020 Tulsa Klavern members before a fiery, 70-by-20 foot cross. 34 Founding members provided the financing and leadership necessary to build the Klu Klux Klan’s temple, or Klavern, known as Beno Hall. It is reported that the locals jokingly called it “Be No Hall,” as in “Be No Nigger, Be No Jew, Be No Catholic, Be No Immigrant.” 35 By March 1922Klu Klux Klan abducted and “bullwhipped” John K. Smitherman, a prominent Black American. The Klu Klux Klan cut off a piece of his ear and tried to force Smitherman to eat it. 36 By April 1922 , more than 1,700 Klu Klux Klan members marched through downtown Tulsa while an airplane carrying an electrically lighted cross flew overhead. 37 In that spring’s city elections, Klu Klux Klan candidates swept every office, and did the same when county elections came around in the fall. 38 Between November 1921 and July 1923, according to formal indictments, thirty (31) Tulsans, everyone an admitted Klansman were involved in twelve (12) “bullwhipping” events in the Tulsa. 39 By August 1923, just two (2) years after the riot, Oklahoma’s anti-klan, Democratic Governor, John Calloway “Jack” Walton (who would later be impeached), declared martial law in Tulsa County because of Klu Klux Klan activity. 40 Looking back, one can easily see how wise a decision it was forDick Rowland to leave Tulsa immediately after he was freed. 41

Conclusion

An Open Letter To Black America

Black Wall Street Is The Model For Our Economic Success

“THE NEGRO CANNOT WIN … if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. (“The Living King”, Ebony, Vol. 41, No. 3, January 1986, Page 63.)42

In 1921 Black Wall Street, in the Greenwood Section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was home to over 600 successfulBlack American businesses. Built by the blood and sweat of former slaves who traveled along the “Trail of Tears” to resettlement camps in Oklahoma and ironically aided by Jim Crow laws that forced the Black Community to become self-sustaining and interdependent, Black Wall Street became more than a bona fide “rags to riches” story. 43Black Wall Street, in the midst of a corrupt and moraly bankrupt country, transformed into a proven economic model and blue printfor a productive, prosperous and secure future. According to David Reeves, an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University in the Afro Studies Department, a Black Wall Street “dollar circulated 36 to 1,000 times, sometimes taking a year for currency to leave the community. Now in 1995, a dollar leaves the Black community in fifteen (15) minutes.” 44 According to John and Maggie Anderson, founders of The Empowerment Experiment (formerly called the “Ebony Experiment“), despite the nearly $1 trillion dollars of buying power in Black America, for every dollar that Black Americans spend, only $0.02 centsare invested into Black-owned businesses. The Andersons advocate buying from Black-owned businesses to rebuild our community, schools, tax base and revitalize our workforce. 45John Malveaux, President of the Long Beach Central Area Association, agreeing with the Andersons puts it this way; “there is a need to bring back some sense of cohesiveness in the [Black] community, not only culturally but economically. 46I agree. Malveaux is spot on. Practically speaking, with only $0.02 cents of every dollar of our buying power left in our community, $0.98 cents of every dollar we spend is being used by those who would oppress us. Essentially, we’re funding our own demise and I have to wonder if we’ve lost our mind? Are we so dependent upon the government’s dole that we can no longer discern the difference between life and death? Are we so deep in debt, so desperate and despondent in our disenfranchisement and disposition that we’ve abandoned the bloody lessons learned from the legacy of Black Wall Street and bought into the vicious vote buying schemes inherent in liberal policies? Star Parker, Founder and President of C.U.R.E., the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, in her “Memo to Romney” expands the discussion when she says; “getting off ‘Uncle Sam’s Plantation‘ is no longer a problem limited to our poor. It is a problem and challenge for the whole country.” 47 Here’s my Memo to the Congressional Black Caucus: Capitalism for the rich and Socialism for the poor has not, does not and never, ever will work. It is long, long past time we got off“Uncle Sam’s Plantation.”Booker Taliaferro Washington, championed biblically moral character, personal responsibility, education and economic empowerment. 48 He was prophetic when he said: “The greatness of a nation in the future will be measured not by the vessels that it floats, but by the number of schools and churches and useful industries that it keeps in existence. It will be measured not by the number of men killed, but by the number of men saved and lifted up.” 49Here is my bottom line: When we (i.e., Black American consumers and entrepreneurs) invest in each other by way of the time tested and proven promises of market-based public policies that promote private property, personal responsibility, and limited government we fight poverty. When we live by biblical values, such as abstinence, education, faith, family and freedom, to protect biblically defined marriage, parental rights, the lives of our women and the life of our children inside the wombs of their mothers we please God. When we please God, we win.

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):

01. Tulsa Race Riot, “Re-examine the Riot,” Produced by the American Studies Program, Oklahoma State University (http://bit.ly/KFHOHK). See also Parrish, Mary E. Jones. An Eye-Witness Account of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot by Mrs. Mary E. Jones Parrish as published in 1923: John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, 2009 Edition.02. 1921 Tulsa Race Riot: captured men. Photo by Tulsa Historical Society: “Black detainees are led to the Convention Hall following a race riot in Tulsa, Okla, June 1, 1921. The National Guard rounded up blacks by the thousands and took them to the fairgrounds, the Convention Hall and a baseball stadium where they were given food and water. By day’s end, many thriving black businesses in a 35-block area had been torched.” (http://bit.ly/MOZn2V).03. Tulsa Reparations Coalition, Prologue and quote by State Representative Don Ross, “Tulsa Race Riot — A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921” (http://bit.ly/Md5IE1).04. Tulsa Race Riot Report, The Final Report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, February 28, 2001 (http://bit.ly/LSs3fq).05. Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, “The Black Wall Street,” Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/b9PcZ8).06. Randy Krehbiel, World Staff Writer, “The Questions That Remain, A conversation about Tulsa’s Race Riot and racism today” (http://bit.ly/kmOj2L). See also “Slavery in America — History.Com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts.” Quote: “Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco.” (http://bit.ly/dERwex).07. “The Eruption of Tulsa“: An NAACP Official Investigates the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (http://bit.ly/I7zidR).08. Race Riot: Timeline | Tulsa World, “Timeline” (http://bit.ly/kmOj2L).09. Tulsa Race Riot, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/2Cp2CU).10. Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Tulsa Race Riot, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/h0pbkE).11. Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Aftermath, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MEOcZS).12. The 25 Worst Riots of All Time, #9 Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (http://bit.ly/8Wa3pa).13. Race Riot: Timeline | Tulsa World, “The Toll” (http://bit.ly/kmOj2L).14. Tulsa Race Riot, “Meet the Survivors,” Robert Fairchild, Sr. (http://bit.ly/LhqEQa).15. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Jim Crow Stories, “Tulsa Riot (1921)” (http://to.pbs.org/Lrb9SE).16. African–American Resource Center, Tulsa Race Riot Timeline with Maps, “The Seeds of Catastrophe”, May 31st, 1921 (http://bit.ly/NtmOos).17. Dick Rowland, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Mdyogj).18. Ibid.19. Ibid.20. Ibid.21. Ibid.22. The Tulsa Tribune, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator,” Tuesday, May 31st, 1921 (http://bit.ly/c49bGW).23. Ibid.24. Dick Rowland, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Mdyogj).25. Scott Ellsworth, “The Tulsa Race Riot — History Does Not Take Place In A Vacuum” (http://bit.ly/Ne6fN).26. Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, “The Black Wall Street,” Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/b9PcZ8).27. Ibid.28. Ibid.29. Dick Rowland, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Mdyogj).30. Race Riot: Timeline | Tulsa World, “The Aftermath” (http://bit.ly/kmOj2L).31. Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, by Charles Robert Goins, Danney Goble, James H. Anderson, “Reported Incidents Involving The Ku Klux Klan, By County” (http://bit.ly/LSXKFw). See also Scott Ellsworth, “The Tulsa Race Riot — History Does Not Take Place In A Vacuum” (http://bit.ly/Ne6fN).32. Beno Hall: Tulsa’s Den Of Terror, by Steve Gerkin, September 3rd, 2011 (http://bit.ly/MdPVov).33. Ibid.34. Ibid.35. Ibid.36. Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, by Charles Robert Goins, Danney Goble, James H. Anderson, “Reported Incidents Involving The Ku Klux Klan, By County” (http://bit.ly/LSXKFw).37. Race Riot: Timeline | Tulsa World, “The Aftermath” (http://bit.ly/kmOj2L).38. Ibid. See also The House of Kerr of Ardgowan, The Grandfather Kerr Clan. Quote: “The enormous economic power and political leverage of Tulsa’s oil establishment has always managed to suppress much public knowledge of the 1921 Tulsa Race War … or the complete Ku Klux Klan political takeover of Oklahoma after the November 1923 impeachment of Oklahoma’s courageous anti-Klan Governor Jack Walton orchestrated by Richard Lloyd Jones.” (http://bit.ly/MdTEm6). See also Tulsa Race Riot Survivors Sue Tulsa Tribune, by Attorney Jim Lloyd of Tulsa represents the survivors, Dated: Friday, May 30th, 2003, Here’s the case: “On the eve of the 83rd anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, survivors of the Riot are filing a civil lawsuit in the Western US District Court, Kansas City Missouri, naming the Tulsa Tribune newspaper, the Estate of Editor and Publisher Richard Lloyd Jones Sr., the Estates and Family Trusts of Jones Family members and members of the Ku Klux Klan organization in Tulsa for their deliberate actions that started one of the worst race riots in American history.” (http://bit.ly/NEmDW9).39. Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, by Charles Robert Goins, Danney Goble, James H. Anderson, “Reported Incidents Involving The Ku Klux Klan, By County” (http://bit.ly/LSXKFw).40. Race Riot: Timeline | Tulsa World, “The Aftermath” (http://bit.ly/kmOj2L). See also Governor of Oklahoma (http://bit.ly/MEUNn6) and Impeachment (http://bit.ly/NtU3rE). See also Hiram Wesley Evans, the Imperial Wizard who “devoted funds to fighting Jack C. Walton, the anti-Klan governor of Oklahoma; to the group’s joy, Walton was impeached and removed from office in 1923.” (http://bit.ly/K8RILU).41. Dick Rowland, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Mdyogj).42. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Living King”, Ebony, Vol. 41, No. 3, January 1986, Page 63 (http://bit.ly/LzCLHI). See also Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing; he merely increases the oppressor’s arrogance and contempt. Acquiescence is interpreted as proof of the Negro’s inferiority. The Negro cannot win respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.” (http://bit.ly/LccWus).43. Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Roots, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MgPqdj). See also “Burning of Greenwood, Oklahoma – The Black Wall Street” by Samuel Black: “Based on the growth of African-Americans in Greenwood, Jim Crow laws legalizing segregation were passed in 1908.” (http://bit.ly/bVsusN).44. David Reeves, “What Is Black Wallstreet?” (http://bit.ly/1Q5eOf).45. Black Dollars, Support Black Businesses, by Dianne Anderson, Precinct Reporter Group, (http://bit.ly/LbcJKa).46. Ibid.47. Star Parker, author of “Uncle Sam’s Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America’s Poor and What We Can Do About It” (http://amzn.to/MPW4sh). Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (http://bit.ly/8EtAxr), a 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank which promotes market based public policy to fight poverty. Hear ye her in: “Memo to Romney: Whole nation is on government plantation” (http://bit.ly/xaEPsR).48. Booker T. Washington, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1qr4J).49. Vote God, is committed to motivating and mobilizing people of Faith to amply … Vote! Recent statistics show, 75% of “people of Faith” don’t vote! This will change, and MUST change this year (2012)! The earth groans and God stands, waiting for “people of Faith” to take a STAND for Him! Visit us on Facebook here: http://on.fb.me/KBRliU or stop by our website here: http://bit.ly/KIgp34.

The 101st Airborne Division (the “Screaming Eagles”), a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations, escorted the Little Rock Nine students into the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. 1

Once Again Federal Troops Were Required

In 1871 it took Republican President Ulysses S. Grant ordering federal troops to suppress the race–based para–military violence of the Klu Klux Klan against Black Americans in the Solid Democratic South so we could participate in the AmericanDream.·2 In October of 1957, history repeated itself as it again took a Republican President (Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower) ordering federal troops to suppress race–based segregation supported by Democratic Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus who ordered the National Guard to block nine (9) Black American students from entering Little Rock Central High School so they could participate in the AmericanDream.·3

The Backdrop

In 1954 Brown v. Board of Education (i.e., “Brown I“) was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and that any state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and White students were unconstitutional. 4 This unanimous (9–0) decision, handed down on Friday, May 17th, 1954 by the Earl Warren Court, overturned the Melville Fuller Court’s infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 18965 which held “‘separate but equal‘ provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause,” thus legalizing state–sponsored segregation.

A Supreme Presumption Of Faith

In 1955 the United States Supreme Court delegated the task of integrating schools to district courts with orders that desegregation occur “with all deliberate speed.” 6 However, many southern states interpreted Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 349 U.S. 294 (Tuesday, May 31st, 1955) (i.e., “Brown II“) as legal justification for resisting, delaying, and avoiding integration for years. 7 Using tactics such as closing down school systems, using state money to finance segregated “private schools,” and “token” integration where a few carefully selected Black children were admitted to former white-only schools, leaving the vast majority of Black students in underfunded and unequal Black schools. 8 So much for having faith in the system.

The Brown II Backstep

By 1956 Massive Resistance movements or the “Freedom of Choice” plans ruled the day. 9 These policies, backed by United States Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. and other White politicians and leaders in the state of Virginia in a campaign of new state laws designed to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown I decision in 1954. 10 I wonder where I’ve heard the expression: “Freedom of Choice” before? ··

Case In Point: Alabama

On Monday, November 24th, 1958 the same Warren Court that ruled “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” in Brown I quietly upheld the Alabama pupil placement law which sets up seventeen (17) separate standards for assigning pupils to public schools, as non-discriminatory on its face (Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education, 162 F. Supp. 372). 11 This decision gave those resisting integration a legal way around the 1954 Brown I decision. While never mentioning race, Alabama legally implemented subjective measurements such as the psychological qualification of the pupil for the type of teaching and associates involved, the possibility of threat of friction or disorder, the possibility of breaches of the peace or ill will or economic retaliation within the community, and the maintenance or severance of established social and psychological relationships with other pupils and with teachers to determine if a student was the right fit for a school. 12

Case In Point: Virginia

In Virginia the United States District Court ruled that Prince Edward County, Virginia did not have to desegregate immediately. 13 So when faced with a court order to finally begin desegregation the Prince Edward County board of supervisors stopped funding public schools for five (5) years (1959–1964) and implemented pupil placement laws “with all deliberate speed.” 14 Under pupil placement lawsWhite students in the Prince Edward County were given financial assistance to attend White-only private academies that were taught by teachers formerly employed by the public school system, while Black students had no education at all unless they moved out of the Prince Edward County. 15

So What Happened In Arkansas?

The Little Rock Nine was a group of Black American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. 16 The Black American students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Democratic Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus. 17 However, it was after Republican President Eisenhower federalized the entire 10,000 member Arkansas National Guard, effectively taking the threat violence out of the hands of Democratic Governor Faubus that the Black American students were able to safely attend class despite White Citizens Council mobs making threats to lynch them. 18

The Lost Year

By the end of September 1957, the Little Rock Nine were admitted to Little Rock Central High under the protection of the U.S. Army and the Arkansas National Guard. 19 Nevertheless, they were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse (i.e., being spat on and called names) by many of their fellow White students. 20 From August 1958 to August 1959 the Federal Courts ruled against Democratic Governor Faubus’ efforts to delay de–segregation, only to see him pass legislation that enabled him to close all public schools so he could set up private schools for White students, only to see three (3) segregation supporting school board members voted out of office and the public schools reopened on Wednesday, August 12th, 1959. 21 Although the Lost Year had ended, the Black students who returned to the high schools had to get past lynch mobs to enter the school and suffer physical and emotional abuse. 22

Looking Forward To The Civil Rights Movement

By 1959 Martin Luther King, Jr., had visited Gandhi’s birthplace, wrote the “Measure of a Man,” received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” met Vice President Richard Nixon and said: “If Richard Nixon is not sincere, he is the most dangerous man in America.” 23 By the end of August of 1959 I was three (3) years old.

Is Violence Necessary To Combat Injustice?

“The Negro people can organize socially to initiate many forms of struggle which can drive their enemies back without resort to futile and harmful violence.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Southern Patriot debate with North Carolina NAACP leader Robert F. Williams 24

The Southern Patriot

Published in the October 1959 Edition of The Southern Patriot, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. debated North Carolina NAACP leader Robert F. Williams and wrote the following as he addressed the United States Supreme Court upholding the Pupil Placement Law and the ever present need for Federal action. 25

“For The Negative: King Sees Alternative In Mass Actions”

“Paradoxically, the struggle for civil rights has reached a stage of profound crisis, although its outward aspect is distinctly less turbulent and victories of token integration have been won in the hard-resistance areas of Virginia and Arkansas. The crisis has its origin in a decision rendered by the Supreme Court more than a year ago which upheld the pupil placement law. Though little noticed then, this decision fundamentally weakened the historic 1954 ruling of the Court. It is imperceptibly becoming the basis of a de facto compromise between the powerful contending forces. The 1954 decision required for effective implementation resolute Federal action supported by mass action to undergird all necessary changes. It is obvious that Federal action by the legislative and executive branches was half-hearted and inadequate. The activity of Negro forces, while heroic in some instances, and impressive in other sporadic situations, lacked consistency and militancy sufficient to fill the void left by government default. The segregationists were swift to seize these advantages, andunrestrained by moral or social conscience, defied the law boldly and brazenly. The net effect of this social equation has led to the present situation, which is without clearcut victory for either side. Token integration is a developing pattern. This type of integration is merely an affirmation of a principle without the substance of change. It is, like the Supreme Court decision, a pronouncement of justice, but by itself does not insure that the millions of Negro children will be educated in conditions of equality. This is not to say that it is without value. It has substantial importance. However, it fundamentally changes the outlook of the whole movement, for it raises the prospect of long, slow change without a predictable end.” 26

I agree with Dr. King. Don’t you?

Supreme Court Decisions And Federal Troops Are Not Enough

“The Negro cannot win … if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. (“The Living King”, Ebony, Vol. 41, No. 3, January 1986, Page 63.)27

I am often asked about Black American leadership’s devotion to government welfare programs and our acrimonious relationship with the Pro-Life movement. Specifically, I am asked why Black American leadership cannot see the obvious correlation and natural relationship between the Civil Rights movement and the Pro-Life movement. The answer lies in the fact that much of Pro-Life movement is consumed with developing political equity and reversing United States Supreme Court decisions instead of moving the hearts and minds of people by meeting the need of women and children. The Little Rock Nine are the latest case in point in this series of columns. Neither United States Supreme Court decisions nor political equity was enough overcome the evil in the heart of segregationists.

Why?

I believe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have put it this way:

“It is obvious that Federal action by the legislative and executive branches [is] half-hearted and inadequate. The activity of Negro forces, while heroic in some instances, and impressive in other sporadic situations, lacked consistency and militancy sufficient to fill the void left by government default. The [Pro-Abortionists] were swift to seize these advantages, andunrestrained by moral or social conscience, [defined] the law boldly and brazenly. The net effect of this social equation has led to the present situation [i.e., life versus death], which is without clearcut victory for either side. Token [Pro-Life gains] is a developing pattern. This type of [progress] is merely an affirmation of a principle without the substance of change. It is, like the Supreme Court decision [of 1973], a [bold] pronouncement of [“reproductive justice” for women], but by itself does not insure that the millions of Negro [women and children will live] in conditions of equality. This is not to say that [political equity and United States Supreme Court decisions are] without value. [Both have] substantial importance. However, [emphasis on either] fundamentally changes the outlook of the whole [Pro-Life] movement, for it raises the prospect of long, slow change without a predictable end.”

Forty (40) Years And Over Fifty-Five (55) Million Lives And Counting

No community or people group can survive without their women and children living in conditions of equality. In the last forty (40) years, with the exception of Personhood, 28not one Pro-Life strategy to end abortion has been embraced by communities of color. As a member of a community of color and with the survival of our women and children at stake and on my heart, I am concerned that another forty (40) years of the “art of compromise” 29 and half-hearted court decisions will indeed mark the end of my people. 30

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):·AmericanDream:” The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States; a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, ‘life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement‘ regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that ‘all men are created equal ‘ and that they are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights ‘ including ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness .'” Review online reference here: http://bit.ly/12DcrM··AbortionDebate: “The abortion debate refers to the ongoing controversy surrounding the moral and legal status of abortion. The two main groups involved in the abortion debate are the self-described ‘pro-choice‘ movement (emphasizing the right of women to choose whether they wish to bring a fetus to term) and the self-described ‘pro-life‘ movement (emphasizing the right of the unborn child to be born).” Review online reference here: http://bit.ly/2euSAf.

27. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Living King”, Ebony, Vol. 41, No. 3, January 1986, Page 63 (http://bit.ly/LzCLHI). See also Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing; he merely increases the oppressor’s arrogance and contempt. Acquiescence is interpreted as proof of the Negro’s inferiority. The Negro cannot win respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.” (http://bit.ly/LccWus).

28. What is Personhood?, PersonhoodUSA (http://bit.ly/fuMEMw).29. Donald J. Boudreaux and Dwight R. Lee , “Politics as the Art of Confined Compromise” (http://bit.ly/c0XxHS).30. Salman Nizami, “No Society Can Survive Without Women, The Practice Of Female Foeticideis A Violation Of Human Rights”, published Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 (http://bit.ly/JUNpU9).

The members of the United States Supreme Court, 1896–1897. Under Chief Justice Melville Fuller, this Court established the “Separate–But–Equal” doctrine in a 7 to 1 decision on Monday, May 18th, 1896. Courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court. 1

Executive Summary

Homer Adolph Plessy was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1862, when Union troops under General Benjamin Franklin Butler had freed Black Americans in New Orleans. At that time Black Americans could then marry whomever they chose, sit in any streetcar seat, and even attend integrated schools. However, as a thirty (30) year–old adult, Plessy found that those gains from the American Civil War (1862–1865) and the Radical Reconstruction of the South (1863–1877) were abolished after Union troops were withdrawn in the Republican Compromise of 1877. 2

The Facts Of The Matter

According to the One-Drop Rule, any American with African ancestry (i.e., any person with even “one drop of black blood“) was considered a Black American. 3 So when Mr. Plessy, who was 1/8 Black American, 4 a Shoemaker, an insurance collector, a civil rights activist and a member of the Republican Party, 5 attempted to sit in an All–White railroad car, he was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations. Black Americans using facilities not designated for their race were criminally liable under the statute. At trial with Justice John Howard Ferguson6 presiding, Mr. Plessy was found guilty on the grounds that the law was a reasonable exercise of the state’s police powers based upon the social customs, usages, and the antebellum traditions in Louisiana.

The Question Before The Court

Can the states constitutionally enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use “separate but equal” segregated facilities?

The Answer And Decision From The Court

Yes. The states can constitutionally enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use “separate but equal” segregated facilities. Judgment for Ferguson (i.e., Plessy loses).

“The judges and lawyers, — simply as such, I mean, — and all men of expediency, try this case by a very low and incompetent standard. They consider, not whether the Fugitive Slave Law is right, but whether it is what they call constitutional. Is virtue constitutional, or vice? Is equity constitutional, or iniquity? In important moral and vital questions like this, it is just as impertinent to ask whether a law is constitutional or not, as to ask whether it is profitable or not. They persist in being the servants of the worst of men, and not the servants of humanity.The question is not whether you or your grandfather, seventy years ago, did not enter into an agreement to serve the devil, and that service is not accordingly now due; but whether you will not now, for once and at last, serve God, in spite of your own past recreancy, or that of your ancestor, — by obeying that eternal and only just CONSTITUTION, which He, and not any Jefferson or Adams, has written in your being.” — Henry David Thoreau, from his 1854 essay entitled: “Slavery in Massachusetts” based on a speech he gave at an anti–slavery rally at Framingham, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1854, after the re–enslavement in Boston, Massachusetts of fugitive slave Anthony Burns. 8

The Majority Opinion

“That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery … is too clear for argument … A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races — a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color — has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races … The object of the [Fourteenth A]mendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.” — Henry Billings Brown, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court 9

The Lone Dissenting Opinion

“Our Constitution is color–blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law … In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case … The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to defeat the beneficient purposes which the people of the United States had in view when they adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution.” — John Marshall Harlan, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court 10

Background Notes On The 1896 Justices

Stephen Johnson FieldAssociate Justice Field was nominated to the United States Supreme Court by Abraham Lincoln (Republican). 11

Edward Douglass White, Jr.Associate Justice White was nominated to the United States Supreme Court by Grover Cleveland (Democrat) in 1894, but was elevated to serve as the 9th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1910 by William Howard Taft (Republican). 12

Henry Billings Brown (Author of the Majority Opinion)Associate Justice Brown hired a substitute to take his place in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and instead served as a federal prosecutor. 13

David Josiah BrewerPlessy versus Ferguson was a 7 to 1 decision because Associate Justice Brewer, did not participate in the decision, due to the death of his daughter. 14

The 1896 Justices By The Numbers

6 : Were Republicans 6 : Were Nominated By Republican Presidents 9 : Were Adults During The American Civil War (1861–1865) 5 : Were Members Of A Mainstream Christian Denomination

The Appointment of Supremely Empty Promises

“The real difference between the United States and other nations lies not in the worlds of the preamble to the Constitution, but in the fact that the substantive clauses of the Constitution are enforced by individuals independent of andnot beholden to the elected branches.” — Judge Harold H. Greene, a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia who was nominated by President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. in 1978. 15

For years political analysts have pointed out that the prevailing power of the presidency lies in the office holder’s United States Supreme Court appointments. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, interpreting the“Supreme Law”of the land. As the Judicial Branch of our government, 16 the Supreme Court stands as the final word on matters of law and balances the powers of both the Legislative and Executive branches. Once the Supreme Court has made a decision, no other court can overturn or even review that decision. The average justice serves for fourteen (14) years and retires at age seventy-one (71). 17 Supreme Court justices are appointed for life so they never have to face re–election or make sure that their decisions please the president who appointed them. 18

Note To The Republican Party’s Leadership Team

It’s easy to say Supreme Court appointments are important and it’s easy to see how a President’s nomination(s) to the Supreme Court can profoundly impact our lives. However, historically and heinously these“supreme appointments”have harmed the lives of Black Americans. Regardless of the political party that nominated the Court’s justices, Black Americans, Native Americans and Disabled Americans have suffered by way of Supreme Court decisions. You cannot influence the hearts and minds of the members in oppressed communities, to vote for your Presidential candidate on the basis of future Supreme Court appointments. It just won’t work. We’ve heard that, seen that, been there and done that before.

“Doubtless the relentless violence that the terror squads meted out on Black voters had something do to with the trend [above]. After the paramilitary campaign of 1868, there were few ‘open Radicals’ (Black or White Republicans) in Pulaski County.” 1

What Price The Presidency?

“What the South most needs is peace, and peace depends upon the supremacy of law. There can be no enduring peace, if the constitutional rights of any portion of the people are habitually disregarded. … All parts of the Constitution are sacred, and must be sacredly observed the parts that are new no less than the parts that are old. The moral and material prosperity of the Southern States can be most effectually advanced by a hearty and generous recognition of the rights of all, by all a recognition without reserve or exception.” — Rutherford B. Hayes, accepting the Republican Party Nomination for Presidency of the United States, Columbus, Ohio – July 8, 1876 2

In 1876 the Republican Party had been hurt by financial corruption charges during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant and thus needed a new candidate for the Presidency. 3 The safe liberal politics, party loyalty, and solid war record of the Governor of Ohio, made Rutherford Birchard Hayes the best hope for the Republican Party in the 1876 presidential election. 4 In the end Hayes lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. The count was 4,284,757 or 51% of the vote for Tilden against 4,033,950 or 48% for Hayes. 5 However, in order to win a candidate needed 185 electoral votes. 6 With 51% of the popular vote Tilden controlled 184 electoral votes and with 48% of the popular vote Hayes controlled 165. 7 Nevertheless, Hayes became the 19th President of the United States (1877-1881) in one of the most contentious, controversial, and morally bankrupt elections in American history. 8 When the dust was settled, and the now infamous Compromise of 1877 in the bag, Hayes had won the presidency by a single electoral vote (185-184). 9Yes, in 1876 the Republican Party controlled the White House and the Senate, but at what price? In the aftermath, the Compromise of 1877, gave power to a popular blackfaced Northerner named “Jim Crow” and legitimized by “de jury” his racist political career for the next eighty-nine (89) years. 10

The Republican Compromise Of 1877

“Reconstruction was ended by the Compromise of 1877, a morally flawed but historically consequential arrangement that put Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House and removed federal troops from the South. This compromise consisted of an agreement to drop the Negro problem from the agenda of national policy questions. Hayes called it the ‘let alone‘ policy. It was similar to what others before him had called ‘popular sovereignty‘ and to what others after him have called ‘benign neglect.’ In each case it meant the same thing: no issue of justice was at stake and, therefore, national policy was not required to address the issue. Whatever the Negro problem was, it was not a public problem.” — Alan B. Anderson and George W. Pickering, “Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago” 11

“One of the strangest things about the career of Jim Crow was that the system was born in the North and reached an advanced age before moving South in force.” — C. Vann Woodward, Author of “The Strange Career of Jim Crow” 12

The substance of the Compromise of 187713 stated that Southern Democrats would recognize Hayes as president with the understanding that Republicans would meet certain demands. Here’s the deal.

The Republican Party pledged to …

Remove All Federal Troops

Removing federal troops from the South would end the Radical Reconstruction Era of the Republican Party and leave the “race problem” in the racist xenophobic hands of former Confederate (i.e., democratic-controlled) state legislatures. As such this clause enabled the Democratic Party to regain the political control of the South that they had lost at the end of the American Civil War. In most of these states Black Codes14 were reintroduced, Jim Crow15 was embraced and a large percentage of Black Americans lost the right to vote in future elections.

Rebuild The Southern Economy

This clause required legislation to be passed in order to industrialize the South and get the former Confederate States back on their feet after suffering such a terrible loss during the Civil War.

Fund The Texas and Pacific Railroad

This clause is where it gets interesting. The construction of a transcontinental railroad in the South was the goal of the “Scott Plan,” 16 proposed by Thomas Alexander Scott (the ‘Railroad Prince‘), an American businessman who at the time was the fourth president of what was the largest corporation in the world, the Pennsylvania Railroad. As a longtime friend of Samuel J. Tilden, 17 the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, it was Scott who took the leading role in crafting the Compromise of 1877.

Appoint A Southern Democrat To Hayes’ Cabinet

This resulted in David M. Key, 18 the Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee becoming the Postmaster General. Since Hayes was so narrowly elected, this clause was not unusual or unexpected.

In exchange the Democrat Party pledged to …

Accept Hayes’ Presidency

The pledges were made, Hayes removed the troops, but the promises were soon broken. Over the next twenty (20) years, Black Americans in the South were systematically disfranchised until virtually none could vote. 19

Respect The Rights Of Black Americans

Ultimately, once the restraining forces of the Radical Republican Party were removed, Jim Crow seized power and shameless segregation ruled the day. Here’s a case in point: In Mississippi, with nothing to keep the South from her predilection for lynching Negroes, White paramilitary hate group members no longer felt the need to disguise themselves as they did in the hay days of the First Ku Klux Klan (1865-1869). 20 So complete was the Democratic Party’s victory, by way of the Compromise of 1877, that Adelbert Ames, the Republican Governor of Mississippi, fled the state rather than face impeachment charges by the newly elected Democratic legislature. 21

The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Wormley Agreement22 was settled at the James Wormely Hotel in Washington D.C., at the corner of 15th and “H” Northwest on Saturday, February 26th, 1877. How fitting it is to note here that representatives of both the Republican and Democratic Parties used a propriety owned by a Black American in the North for the venue to reach an agreement that sealed and signaled the Republican Party’s abandonment of Black Americans in the South (Ecclesiastes 1:9). James Wormley 23 was the only Black American at the bedside of Abraham Lincoln when he died and in his defense, took no part in the decisions reached in the Compromise of 1877 and as a proprietor only provided the hall.

The Republican Compromise Of 2012

“If I have the opportunity to serve as our nation’s next president, I commit to doing everything in my power to cultivate, promote, and support a culture of life in America.” — Willard Mitt Romney, “My Pro-Life Pledge,” June 18th, 2011 24

During the American Civil War, the national debt had increased by a staggering 4,000 percent (4000%). 25 After the war most White Northerners, preoccupied with the economic problems of unemployment and falling farm prices, were less concerned about violent acts of White Southerners against Black Americans in the South. So by 1870, “Waving The Bloody Shirt” 26 with the blood stains of carpetbaggers (i.e., Northerners who moved to the South) whipped by the Ku Klux Klan had lost its appeal. Furthermore, by 1876 it was clear that the North was satisfied that legislation such as the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments had solved the “race problem” in the South and wanted the Republican Party to move on from social issues to economic issues. 27This sounds so very familiar to me.

Today, the Republican Party, wanting to move on from social issues to economic issues, 28 is facing the same temptation to satisfy the conscience of her socially conservative constituents with a Pro-Life presidential candidate that has pledged to limit abortion to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. 29This is theRepublican Compromise of 2012. Limiting abortion with an executive order that reinstates the Mexico City Policy, with legislation that repeals, restricts, regulates, reduces and defunds abortion and with the appointment of Supreme Court justices who support reversing Roe v. Wade will not end abortion.

Until the Republican Party …

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana, The Life of Reason (5 volumes, 1905-1906) 30

“History is for human self-knowledge … the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.” — Robin George Collingwood, The Life of Reason (5 volumes, 1905-1906) 31

Abortion is a business, businesses are born with a product and customers are the lifeblood of businesses. Reducing abortion will not end abortion. Removing government subsidies from abortion providers will not end abortion. Reversing the current direction in Washington D.C. will not end abortion. Until the Republican Party embraces the biblical truth that only human life is sacred from the beginning of our biological development until death. Until the Republican Party understands that the only stronghold, strategy and sadistic sanctuary the abortion industrial complex can retreat to, in order to maintain their illegitimate air of credibility, is to portray itself as the only option caring enough to help poor women in communities of color. Until the Republican Party moves the hearts and minds of people in a way that meets the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of women and children helpless, homeless, hungry or without healthcare. Until the Republican Party learns to communicate compassion in a way that helps the poor realize that the golden promises of socialized healthcare only serve to hide the huge economic loss those social programs will cost their children and grandchildren in the future for putting these programs on the government’s credit card. Until the Republican Party fiscal conservatives unite with her social conservatives on the common ground of abortion’s $45 trillion dollar cost to our country32 (please note, that’s roughly three times our national debt) and build a strong solidified party presence in America …

Membership card of A.F. Handcock in the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This certifies that the bearer, whose signature appears hereon, has been found worthy of advancement in the mysteries of Klancraft. 1

Radical Republican President Grant Destroyed The First Klan

“My support for your organization must remain completely invisible.” — Confederate General Robert E. Lee, a member of the original Ku Klux Klan (KKK) whose statement inspired the Klan’s nickname: “Invisible Empire.” 2

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States from 1869–1877. 3 As President he led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all remaining vestiges of Confederate nationalism, slavery and effectively destroyed the first incarnation of Ku Klux Klan in 1871. 4 The First Klan founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six veterans of the Confederate Army flourished in the South following the American Civil War and has been called America’s first true terrorist group. 5 Members utilized white costumes: robes, masks, and conical hats, designed to mystify, terrify and hide their true identities. 6 Today the Ku Klux Klan is splintered into several independent chapters with no apparent connections between them and is rightly classified as a hate group with an estimated membership between 3,000 and 5,000 as of 2012. 7

Former Black Slaves Endorsed The Radical Republican Party

“Yes, sir. [The Ku Klux Klan] is a protective political military organization. I am willing to show any man the constitution of the society. The members are sworn to recognize the government of the United States. It does not say anything at all about the government of Tennessee. Its objects originally were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic; but after it became general it was found that political matters and interests could best be promoted within it, and it was then made a political organization, giving it’s support, of course, to the democratic party.” — former Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest, in a Cincinnati Commercial, August 28, 1868 Interview. 8

After the North’s victory and during Reconstruction, The State of Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth (14th) Amendment and gave Black American’s the right to vote. 9 As a result, Tennessee’s August gubernatorial election of 1867 was the first time in the Tennessee’s history that Black Americans would be allowed to vote. Actually and more significantly, this was the first time since President Abraham Lincoln’s Friday, January 1st, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that Black American’s in the South would vote at all. Nevertheless, in the dark background of election politics, former Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest who was serving as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was keeping his Klansmen in line in an effort to deflect the attention of the United States Military (i.e., Union soldiers) away from the Klan’s terrorist program that sought to restore White Supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against freed Black Slaves and White Republicans. 10 Working with “Conservatives” (a coalition of Democrats and old-line Whigs) Lieutenant General Nathan Forrest tried to convince former Black Slaves that their former Slave Masters were their best friends and that they held their best interest at heart. 11To the Klans surprise, the former Black Slaves in Tennessee did not believe them and overwhelmingly voted for the Radical Republicans. Knee deep in denial, the Ku Klux Klan believed that freed Black Slaves voted Republican because “carpetbaggers” (a derogatory term Southerners gave to Northerners who moved to the South) and “scalawags” (a derogatory term for Southern Whites who supported the Radical Republican Party) told them to and once freed from such, former Black Slaves would gladly return to being the “good niggers” they were before the American Civil War. 12 However, nothing was ever farther from the truth. Below is an explanation for why freed Black Slaves endorsed the Radical Republicans by a delegation of freed South Carolina Black Slaves.

“ADDRESS TO THE NATIVE WHITES“By the Colored People of South Carolina to the Charleston Democratic PartyFrom the American Missionary, Vol. XII., October 1868, No. 10.

[You] derided the idea of granting us the right to vote; when your legislature met in 1865-66, you passed that infamous Black Code … Your laws provided for taking and binding-out our children and subjecting us to all manner of disabilities. We could not pursue any trade or calling in this State without written permission from some White man; we could not sell any article of barter without the consent first obtained from some magistrate. With all these facts before us, and your Negro Code before us … do you not see why we have been constrained to trust in strangers rather than to those who claim that they are our natural friends? Can you have the heart to ask colored men to vote for men who deny that they are capable of voting intelligently? Canyouaskustovoteourlibertiesawayforever? Can you ask us to sustain a party which is pledged to divest us of all privileges in law which we now enjoy? Can you hope that we will be frightened at your threat of extermination because we wish to enjoy the same rights in common with other men? We do not feel assured that to vote for your party will be advantageous to us and our children. 13

After the 1867 Radical Republican victory in Tennessee the former Confederate Lieutenant General and then present Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest released his army of Klansmen and by October 1867 twenty-five (25) murders, thirty-five (35) assaults with intent to kill, eighty-three (83) assaults and batteries, four (4) rapes and four (4) arsons were reported to Major General Oliver Otis Howard of the United States Army (formerly the Union Army) in Tennessee. 14 Thank God for the former Commanding General of the Union Army and then present Radical Republican President Ulysses S. Grant.

Who Were The Radical Republicans?

“The war will not end until the government shall more fully recognize the magnitude of the crisis; until they have discovered that this is an internecine war in which one party or the other must be reduced to hopeless feebleness and the power of further effort shall be utterly annihilated. It is a sad but true alternative. … How, then, can the war be carried on so as to save the Union and constitutional liberty? Prejudices may be shocked, weak minds startled, weak nerves may tremble, but they must hear and adopt it. Universal emancipation must be proclaimed to all.” — Thadeus Stevens, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 9th District (March 4th, 1859 – August 11th, 1868) 15

The Radical Republicans were a small group within the Republican Party from about 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. 16They called themselves “radicals” because they strongly opposed slavery, distrusted ex-Confederate politicians and demanded harsh policies for Reconstruction 17 such as the:

Civil Rights Acts of 1866

Declared that people born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude. 18

Fourteenth (14th) Amendment

Provided a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the 1857 United States Supreme Court Dred Scott decision and installed the “Due Process Clause” which prohibited state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. 19

Force Act of 1870

Restricted the first wave of the Ku Klux Klan by banning the use of terror, force or bribery to prevent people from voting because of their race. The First Ku Klux Klan was all but eradicated within a year of federal prosecution. 20

Civil Rights Acts of 1871

Protected Black Americans from the Ku Klux Klan by providing a civil remedy for abuses then being committed in the South. 21

Are There Any Radical Republicans Today?

“I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation while sin is a reproach to any people.” — Frederick Douglass, September 24, 1847 Speech on American Slavery Delivered in Syracuse, New York 22

It is not difficult for me to imagine what life would be like for Black America today without the righteous and right-minded efforts of the Radical Republicans of the past. Still, the question before us is: are there any Radical Republicans today? Today our country is split over the incontestable evil of abortion on demand and same-sex marriage. The answer will not be found in compromise legislation that restricts, regulates or reduces abortion or the promotion of homosexuality. The answer will be found in the hearts of men and women who are steadfastly committed to an uncompromised biblical worldview that can not only see the end of abortion on demand and same-sex marriage but also see a day where the needs of women, children and communities of color are met. The Radical Republicans of the past picked a platform to stand on and refused to settle for anything less than “equality of man before his Creator,” 23 even at the expense of their public office.

Nevertheless, I have long wondered what happened to the Radical Republicans of the past? It seems to me history suggests that after 1868 the “Radicals” lost interest in the fate of the Freedmen, became more concerned about fiscal policies, began to view Black Americans as “potentially dangerous to the economy because they might prove to be labor radicals” and jumped the Radical Republican ship to become members of the Liberal Republican camp. Furthermore, I cannot help but wonder if conservative fiscal policies that lead to the preservation of personal profit is where the heart and soul of the Republican Party is today? With the moral compass of our country broken and November quickly coming into view, I’ve been asked on more than one occasion: Are there any Radical Republicans today?

The Issues4Life Foundation targets and works directly with African-American Pastors and Priests nationwide and is dedicated to addressing the issues surrounding the inviolability of human life in the African-American community.